上海外国语大学考研英文阅读材料经济学人精选

上海外国语大学考研英文阅读材料经济学人精选

Older workers

March of the greybeards

Britain’s workforce is ageing. To make the most of it, companies will need to adapt

FOR 26 years Ann White, a poised 58-year-old, worked in the glazing department of Steelite International, a pottery firm. It was a repetitive, mundane job; the kind where you “hung your brain on a nail”, she says. Retirement may have seemed fairly attractive. No longer. Over the past five years Ms White has taken part in further training at work, gaining qualifications in maths, English and IT. She now manages the 11 cleaners who clear up the factory site, and would like to carry on working and learning for a while yet. “It’s been life-changing,” she says

Britain’s workforce is greying. Between 1995 and 2015 the numb er of working people aged over 65 more than doubled, to over 1m. During the same period the number of workers aged 50-64 increased by 60%, to 8m. During the recent recession, while employment rates for youngsters fell, the number of silver-haired workers soared (see chart). By 2020 one-third of the workforce will be over 50.

One reason is simply that people are living longer: those aged 60 today can expect to live nine years longer than those a century ago. Government policy has also kept more people in work. Since 2006 it has been possible

to work while still drawing a state pension. The retirement age is due to rise to 66 by 2020 and to 67 by 2028. And poor annuity rates, coupled with a shift from defined-benefit pensions—where retirement income is linked to an employer’s final salary and years of membership—to less generous defined-contribution schemes, which depend on the amount paid in, has kept many toiling away.

Increasingly, however, companies are courting the over-50s. Some, such as Steelite International, are retraining their ageing employees. Others are hiring older unemployed people. On August 31st Barclays, a bank, launched a “Bolder Apprentices” scheme for older workers; more than half its first cohort of 43 apprentices are over 40, with several in their 50s. When I’m 64

At the New Malden branch of B&Q, a large DIY store, 76-year-old Bill Macpherson works in the gardening department three days a week alongside Havva Halil, a 64-year-old former florist who works full-time. Some of their work is physically demanding, particularly around Christmas time, when large fir trees need to be lugged around. But working “keeps us young,” beams Ms Halil. B&Q has long been keen on older workers: it scrapped its retirement age in the 1990s. In 1989 its Macclesfield store was staffed by people over 50 for six months; during the experiment profits increased by 18%, while the turnover of employees was one-sixth of its usual levels.