Life expectancy at birth and at age 65 by local areas in the United Kingdom, 2006-08

Latest from the Office of National Statistics. In 2006–08 life expectancy at birth for males was highest in the South East of England (79.2 years) and lowest in Scotland (75.0 years). For females, life expectancy was highest in the South West of England (83.1 years) and lowest in Scotland (79.9 years). Life expectancy at age 65 in 2006–08 was highest in the South East and South West of England for males (18.4 years) and in the South West of England for females (21.2 years). Scotland had the lowest life expectancy at 65 for both men and women; 16.3 years and 18.9 years respectively. For local areas, life expectancy at birth for males and females in 2006–08 was highest in Kensington and Chelsea (84.3 years and 88.9 years respectively) and lowest in Glasgow City (70.7 years and 77.2 years respectively). In 2006–08 life expectancy at age 65 for males and females was highest in Kensington and Chelsea (23.1 years and 26.3 years respectively) and lowest in Glasgow City (13.8 years and 17.4 years respectively). Not sure whether this will cheer you up or not!

Kippers

No - not for breakfast! Just the latest mnemonic now being applied to certain members of our age group - Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. The latest research reported in the Observer shows that one in four of people of retirement age cannot afford to leave their jobs and will have to continue working indefinitely.

"Falling house prices, shrinking pension pots and the need to support financially dependent children have created a perfect storm for retirement plans," said Simon Lough, chief executive of Heartwood Wealth Management, which commissioned the independent research of almost 2,000 people aged 55 and over.

The Office of National Statistics, found that most "kippers" are young men. Almost a third of men aged between 20 and 34 live with their parents, compared with less than a fifth of women.

The trend for young people returning home has emerged over the past eight years and in that period the number has risen by 300,000 to include two million young men.

The survey shows that for semi-retired people over 65, the situation is no better than for those approaching retirement: 49% said financial pressures were forcing them to delay full retirement. More than a third of those said they wanted to achieve their pension plan target before retiring fully and almost two-thirds said they would have to continue working until they were made to stop. Just over 6% anticipated having to work for another 10 years.

Bank holiday - good news day!

Hardly! After the revelations about aspirins and red wine we now get the latest data from the Office for National Statistics which show that if you analyse the data correctly then younger people are not doing as badly in terms of job prospects as was first thought and the over 50's are doing decidedly worse. Prime have produced a paper on this topic.

Though both groups have a hard time in a recession, the over 50's who drop off the employment ladder are having a harder time even than the youngsters taking their first steps onto it. It is this story - about the difficulty that older people have finding work, that is rarely told.

Too many commentators appear to have rushed in and grabbed the first figure they could find, so anxious were they to “expose” a huge rise in youth unemployment. They all made the elementary error of assuming that those who were economically inactive were all unemployed and completely forgot that nearly one million people aged 18 - 24 are in full-time education.

When the data is adjusted for full-time education amongst the 16/17 year olds and the 18 - 24 year olds, it is quite apparent that these cohorts are faring betting than others. That is not to say that everything is rosy - one person in ten aged 18 - 24 economically inactive is not good news. But compare it with worklessness in the 50 to State Pension Age cohort. One in four is economically inactive in this age group according to these data.

PRIME are calling for programmes for the 50+ workless and especially for more help for 50+ self-employment and enterprise?

Some voices are now calling for such action. The TUC has just warned that long-term unemployed people aged over 50 are at risk of never working again - unless they get proper tailored support to get back into the job market.

The TUC quotes research that shows that people aged over 50 who are unemployed are 10 times more likely to still be out of work after two years than they are to have found a new job.

Maybe some more red wine is called for!

Older workers still managing to win jobs

Older workers are managing to win jobs amid the worst declines in employment on record, official figures revealed.

The number of retirement-age Britons in work expanded by 26,000 in the most recent quarter, the Office for National Statistics reported yesterday.

That compares with a decline of 295,000 in employment across the rest of the population in the three months ended May.

The rate of attrition is particularly painful among young people, with the unemployment rate among those aged 16-24 at its highest since the early 1990s. This is fuelling fears of a 'lost generation' unable to enter the workforce during a devastating recession.

The resilience at the older end of the jobs market is partly fuelled by firms such as B&Q, which has long targeted over-50s because they are often dab hands at DIY and tend to be particularly conscientious.

Employment figures

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics confirm what we have been hearing from other Western countries, namely, that the current recession is hitting younger people more so than older people. Employment is up overall in the last year by 0.1% for the fifty pluses to SRA, and up 3.6% for those over SRA. The biggest increase is from women in employment. For the over 50's it was 0.2% and for post SRA 5.8%. For men it was a fall of 0.1% for the 50+'s and 0% for post SRA. The 18-24 shows a decrease of 4.6%. This is not to take away from the concern currently being reported by Age Concern and Help the Aged by older people worrying, with much justification, about future employment prospects of any kind. This simply means that the predicted impact of the recession on older workers has not been anywhere near so dramatic as some have predicted.