What jobs for 60+ year olds?

[Llhvj]

Reading all the threads about redundancies, AI taking over jobs but pension age going up - what jobs are all the 55/60 plus year olds meant to have? In my own company, most of the people are in the 20s/30s age bracket, same with DHs work place. What jobs are all these people meant to be doing?

Sure, and I also still have my own job - but I don't know for how long, and AI is certainly a threat to my job. 4 people in my office were made redundant in the last few months, and none of them have found a new job yet. One is late 50s and another is in his 60s, so both have a few years to go till pension age.

Being a TA is exhausting and stressful as more and more are given more responsibilities to look after children with different needs. They only have a 30 minutes break and literally don't stop. All the TAs round our way are nearing retirement and can't wait to stop. The job pays peanuts too.

Have you been in the same company for years though or recently got this job?

But these people are probably just in the same job they've been doing years. If they are all made redundant tomorrow how many would be able to get same/similar roles in their 50s and 60s..............

Are they new recruits though or have they been there donkeys years?

Project manager, engineer, sales, experienced tradesman (with someone else doing the lifting).

A lot of people will continue to do what they've always done. A percentage will find to avoid doing what they've always done.

I'm in my early sixties. IT Programme Manager. Been at my current workplace for about four years (aged 58). Started as contract then converted to perm. Ideally would like to stay until I retire but there is very little stability nowadays so who knows.

I’m fascinated! Tell me more?

After I left teaching through ill health I started in a new career area in my late 40s. I stayed there for 15 years in a variety of projects. I got a new part time job at just short of 60 and went on secondment for a while. In my early 60s I was doing physically demanding outreach work in offender management. While working full time I retrained and qualified in something else and at 63 I left to concentrate on self employment. It's a good thing I did as I have mobility issues now. I'll be 70 next year and I'm still working part time. I think it's vital to future proof your career where possible.

Of course, it isn't just whether we can do the job. It's getting hired. And of course, old person doesn't get hired.

I've always been very employable and found it easy to move between jobs. But since I turned 50? Nope. Despite being excellently qualified and very experienced.

Give me a job and I'll do it very very well.

Yeah, but if they were made redundant or lost their job, they would hugely struggle to get a new related job. Companies don't hire older workers. The bias is huge.

A few have been there donkey's years. I've been there about three years. Some of the different projects run for 2/3 years so people will come in on a new project all the time so to answer your question a mixture of both really. It is a charity that supports older people though so I guess they are more likely to empl0y older people. My manager is 67 and the CEO in their seventies !

I’m a Business Analyst.

"CEOs and very senior people" are very much not 1 in 10 of the workforce in their 50s and 60s!!

Lawyer jobs swallowed by AI? Are you having a laugh? Successful lawyering is hugely about soft skills including huge amounts of persuasion, negotiation, collaboration, hutzpah, decision trees, difficult legal concepts & clever logic. Which is far beyond what AI can conceivably do in near future. LLMs hallucinate their way thru everything and understand no legal principles at all.

The people I know age 60+ still in paid work are project managers, administrators, researchers, lecturers, lots in teaching environments, supermarkets, accounting, office jobs, receptionists, road builder, roofing salesperson, fiction writer, PA, statistician, cleaners, care workers, hairdresser... Example: ~64yo guy now in a supermarket worked in a news agent previously (& many other places, NA was shut down suddenly) until about April 2024. He was out of work maybe 5m. A challenge was finding somewhere local he could get a job in his small town.

The national labour shortage is so huge that most people of any age can get hired elsewhere if they work at finding a job... important not to be priced out of jobs market, of course. If you have commitments that require a salary 60k+ then you'll end up turning your nose up a lot at available jobs if you have to suddenly switch industry.

I must admit at 60 and63 I’m glad we’ve had our own business for 22 years and it can be ‘downscaled ‘ too

I am 60 and would love a part time job. I worked in retail and childcare for years, then was on home duties as a foster carer. I am in really good general health but feel that my knees and back wouldn't be up to retail or working with small children. I am very good with people, am a good communicater and I have basic computer skills, no idea what i could do really. Part time receptionist or something like that would be brilliant, but jobs like that are like gold dust where I live. I will be following this thread with interest.

I completely disagree. I work in technology. Office jobs and admin are the closest to being enhanced in the short and mid term, and ultimately replaced by AI. The legions of jobs there used to be entering data or copying data between spreadsheets or writing summaries of documents are already being replaced. More advanced forms of information processing like translation, legal work and ideation are also areas where even basic AI in Microsoft tools can really help, and more advanced systems can do huge amounts of work that just 2 years ago needed lots of people.
Whereas more manual and human-facing tasks like plumbing, electricians, teachers, medics etc won’t be replaced until/unless we have robots.

For long term employment I’d say the more human-facing communication skills you have the better and the more physical, practical skills the better. The manual workers will be the new elites.

Wrt everyone saying 'retail'. I'm 64 and I'm having to retire early from my retail job. Standing for hours and lifting and carrying heavy boxes is just getting beyond me, and I'm VERY fit (training for half marathon, spin classes, Pilates etc). The wear and tear on joints and spine is rough.

This is the problem.

They might struggle to get employment in their specific field and on the same salary. There are jobs out there and depending on your skills and how flexible you're prepared to be there are opportunities for older workers.

I’m early 60s, I went for two part-time receptionist jobs last year, I didn’t get either 😭

I'm sorry you didn't, but it might not have been due to your age.

Surely they will be swallowed up as fast the employer can because it's cheaper.

Also my DH who at 73 is still very hands on in the software company he founded in his mid 60s!