Number of Over-65s in Work Doubles over Past Decade

There were 870,000 people over 65 in employment between October and December 2010, compared with 412,000 in January to March 2001
- now making up 3 per cent of the UK workforce.

Self-employment has become an increasingly popular option for older workers with 43 per cent of men and 25.5 per cent of women working past 65 now classified as self-employed.

One of the reasons for this, however, is likely to be age discrimination which makes it more difficult for older workers to get full or part time jobs.

Older workers also show strong loyalty to their employers with 83 per cent of those working past 65 staying with the same employer for the past five years and 41 per cent staying for over 20 years.