ContinuumCrew Webinar

Lori Bitter is the President/CEO at ContinuumCrew, an agency that was born from the closure of JWT BOOM. Prior to running JWT’s specialist agency, she was in charge of client services at Age Wave Impact. As you can see, Lori knows a thing or two about marketing to older consumers. If you visit her blog you can download a Webinar that was presented last week as part of IMMN’s series of marketing events.

It is a while since I visited IMMN’s Web site and was amused to see that it has adopted aquatic imagery. Anybody who regularly reads this blog will know I am fascinated why organisations involed with older people are obsessed with water and it looks like IMMN is no exception.

I digress from the main point of this posting. Lori’s Webinar contains some terrific research. There are so many interesting themes that it far best if you read the results yourself. One item that stood out for me was how the multiple sources of stress vary by age. Look how high the fear of “losing my job” is for all but the oldest age group.

Well done ContinuumCrew in adding to our understanding of the American older person. Dick Stroud

Unemployment stinks at any age

Who should get the bulk of your sympathy; the student who cannot get their first job or the older person who finds themselves unemployed with little chance of getting back into the working world?

There is a natural instinct for the public to have more sympathy for the young. As we know, where public opinion goes, politicians will not be far behind.

An analysis of official labour market figures covering the period July-September 2009 show s that older workers are finding it harder than any other age group to get back into employment after being made redundant. Fewer than one in five (18.7%) of over-50s find employment within three months, compared to more than 40% of 25- to 34-year-olds.

Long-term unemployment (six to 12 months) among the 50+ age group has also more than doubled over the past year.

It would seem that young people are having a much tougher time during this recession than they did in the past downturns. Those who don’t get into the labour market at the level of employment they deserve can suffer for years.

The bottom line is employment is the pits, irrespective of age. I do hope the political class do not get into a “young is more important than old” argument or indeed “old is more important than young”. The downturn impacts age groups in different ways. The assistance should be appropriate to their needs not to their age. Dick Stroud

What, more importantly, Who is a Homepreneur?

Homepreneurs are small business owners running viable enterprises from their home that provides at least 50% of their household income by selling products and services not just locally, but nationally and, often, around the globe.
In the US there are 6.6 million such businesses that employ over 13 million people. 35% of homepreneur businesses generate more than $125,000 in revenue; 8% more than $500,000. These are not pocket money outfits!

What interests me is the demographic profile of this group, according to a research study:

• 69% male
• 52% were over 55 or older and only 6% were less than 35.
• 46% of homepreneurs completing college.

This looks to me like a distinct market, somewhere between a mini-SME and a consumer, that is predominantly 50-plus, that companies should be addressing. You can download a report that gives more info about this group or read about them in Business Week. Dick Stroud

The ageing workforce and its implications for employers and employees

These are two views, from both sides of the Atlantic, are about the practicalities of what an ageing workforce means to employers and employees.

Nothing much to do with 50-plus marketing but it helps give an understanding of the pressures facing older people who want/need to keep working.

This is a research study jointly undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies and the Policy Studies Institute that explores the attitudes of employers towards older workers.

This research, from the US, has the quaint title: “Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? “ What it reveals are some of the harsh practicalities of attempting to get a job in a stressful and diminishing jobs market.

All rather depressing. Dick Stroud

Lots of talk about "olderpreneurs"

I don’t particularly like this name but it is one that seems to have stuck. It refers to older people (probably the 50-plus) who start their own business, either for fun or necessity.

For years I have been barking on about the importance of this group of people for marketers because they need products and services and in my book that is an opportunity. Few organisations have picked up on this fact.

This article from the Guardian provides some useful background.

Last week I met some of these people when I presented to a meeting organised by PRIME about the basics of marketing. It was good fun and made me even more convinced that this is going to be a growing market.

If you want to see and hear what I was saying then you can download this podcast. For some strange reason it (the podcast) has taken an aversion to Mosaic browsers so you will need to use MS IE or Chrome. Dick Stroud

Where marketing and employment meet

We know the population is ageing – no doubt – no debate.
We know that older people are going to have to work longer because of the recession – no doubt – no debate.

We know that the opportunities for employment are thin on the ground when you hit the big 50 (now it probably the big 40) – not much doubt – little debate.

So, if we know all of this stuff why are not more companies looking to sell products and services to older people looking to start their own business? Beats me.

The US has realised this market opportunity and you are now seeing lots of Web sites catering for this audience. This is the mission of WhatsNext.com - to provide information, inspiration and resources for men and women who want to change careers, find more fulfilling work or improve their work-life balance. All are welcome, but there will be an emphasis on those who are in mid-career or approaching retirement.
Chuck Nyren has written some good content about the company. Last week I was talking at a conference in Switzerland with Mark Miller, the Editorial Director. He is a good guy, so you can be sure the content will be excellent. Let’s hope we see these types of ventures in the UK. Dick Stroud

The finances of the over-50s under pressure

Yesterday’s media was full of bad news about the finances of the 50-plus.

The BBC covered the research from Scottish Widows that found that those retirees with outstanding non-mortgage debt owed an average of £7,344, up from £6,732 in the same poll a year ago.

Also, it is getting harder to ditch the financial burden of children with 7% of retirees stating they are still paying towards the upkeep of their adult children

The most concerning ‘fact’ was the finding that 15% of retired people were also still paying off a home loan, with an average debt of £50,100, up £8,000.

The same research is covered in the Daily Telegraph except this time the focus is on the way the Finance Industry is reducing the maximum age they will lend to, with many introducing a cap of 65 years old.

As a result, retired home owners with a mortgage are struggling to find new deals and face being evicted from their properties if they do not have the cash to pay off their remaining home loan with one lump sum. I suspect there is a bit of journalist licence in this statement.

Finally, The Daily Mail reports the way the recession means “millions of people” are having to delay their retirement plans.

The paper says:

Nearly two million people have been forced to put off retirement after seeing their pension funds plummet.

More than a third of those in jobs and over 55 plan to keep working until the stock market recovers, pulling their retirement income back up with it.

Almost a quarter of this age group now expect to work beyond the state pension age of 65, while 32% admitted they were not prepared at all for retirement.

All in all, yesterday was a good day to miss reading the papers. A couple of caveats. Yes, yes there is truth in all of these reports but be beware of PR research since you be sure it will be presented to favour the company involved.

Secondly, don’t generalise from the specific. The UK has a lots of young people who are not in employment or training but a lot more who are.

Still, none of this is good news. Dick Stroud

Don’t take statistics at face value – especially when they are about employment

Last week I wrote about the unemployment data in the UK and gave the impression that whilst all was not hunky dory with the over-50s it was youth unemployment that was creating the major problems. I was, I am ashamed to say, following the media trend of focusing on Yoof. Laurie South, who runs PRIME, contacted me to put the situation straight.

This is a summary of what he said.

Though both groups have a hard time in a recession, oldsters 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 have finding work, that is rarely told.

Too many commentators appear to have rushed in and grabbed the first figure they could find (I hang my head in shame), 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.

So there you are. Thanks Laurie for your note and the detailed analysis of the data. Dick Stroud

Old burger flippers are the best

McDonalds asked Lancaster University Management School to examine the performance of 400 of its restaurants. You will never guess what they found. Customer satisfaction levels were on average 20% higher in those outlets that employed kitchen staff and managers aged over 60.

The company’s head of HR put the improvement down to the older workers' additional experience, work ethic and skills in dealing with customers face-to-face. Also, younger staff responded positively to having older colleagues around them.

Sixty per cent of McDonald's 75,000-strong workforce are under 21, while just 1,000 are aged over 60. The oldest is an 83-year-old woman.

I wonder if these results suggest an explanation why the only age group in the UK that is increasing in employment is the 65+. Dick Stroud

Are your customers still employed?

Yesterday gave us the latest snapshot of UK unemployment. It doesn’t make very good reading. The jobless rate is now 7.6%, the highest in more than 10 years.

You need to dig a bit deeper than the headline figures to understand what is really going on.

• 29 million are still employed, down 269,000 from the three months to February 2009 and down 543,000 on a year earlier (i.e. on the year we have lost around 2% of the workforce).
• The split of people in full-time employment is 13.68 million men and 7.79 million women.
• Those in part-time employment splits 1.88 million men and 5.65 million women.
• Government employs 6.02 million people, up 15,000 from December 2008. Those who pay the wages of state workers (those in private sector employment) are 23.09 million, down 286,000.These figures hide the real scale of state employment since there are many indirect jobs that are dependant on Government funding.
• The number of UK born people in was 25.28 million, down 451,000 from the three months to March 2008. The number of non-UK born people in employment was 3.81 million, up 129,000 for the same period.
• Unemployment for 18 to 24 year olds is 726,000, up 95,000 from the three months to February 2009.

So what does this mean to marketers?

The young are having a really bad time of it. If you are dependant on Yoof spending then be afraid.

Government employees are doing well. Some would say at the expense of those in the private sector. If there is anyway you can target public sector workers, do it. In the longer term public sector employment will be decimated but right now it is growing. Don’t forget state employees are paid far better pensions than those in the private sector so they are ideal consumers to acquire for the longer term.

People not employed in the UK are doing pretty well, both at getting and keeping their jobs. Targeting ethnic markets looks like a winner.

The employment stats make no mention about what is happening with 50-plus employment. Previous data suggest that it is holding up reasonably well, however, when older people lose their job then getting another is extremely difficult. One explanation for the resilience of the older group of employees is the reluctance of companies to enforce retirement policies because of the precarious state of their pension provisions. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: 'Unlike in earlier recessions, companies are worried about pension liabilities, so they are not shipping (older workers) off into retirement. Dick Stroud

50-plus less likely to lose their job during the recession

Thanks to Rick Hartley for telling me about this factlet. A few days back I wrote about the: “Resilience of employment amongst the 50-plus.”

In the UK it appears that the young are having a worse time of things, as far as remaining employed during the recession, than the 50-plus. Getting employed again, having lost a job, might be a very different issue.

The US appears to be following the same course as is demonstrated by this fact

The only segment of the population that is gaining jobs is the 55+ age category. This group gained 224,000 net new jobs in May while the rest of the population lost 661,000. In fact, over the last year, those folks 55 and up garnered 630,000 jobs whereas the other age categories collectively lost over six million positions.

"Moreover, the number of 55 year olds and up who have two jobs or more has risen 1.1% in the last year, the only age cohort to have managed to gain any multiple jobs at all.

I have no idea why this is happening but it is a very important issue for marketers who are trying to understand the result of the recession on their customer base.

It would seem that we can add to the usual list of reasons why the 50-plus are an important group the fact that they are more likely to remain employed. Dick Stroud

Who is having the best recession – the young or the old?

OK, the recession is a nasty thing, we are all agreed upon that fact.
Who's having it the worst - the old or the young?

It is the job of pressure/campaigning groups to paint their members as the people suffering the most pain, but what are the facts?

Look no further and download this brilliant document from the ONS. The answer seems to be that young are the ones who are really suffering. A few factlets.

• Employment rates for people over state pension age continued to rise, driven by increasing employment rates for women: over the year to March 2009, rates for women aged 60 and increased by 0.5%.
• Young people have experienced the largest percentage point increase in unemployment rates compared with other age groups: in the year to March 2009, unemployment rates for 18-24 year olds increased by just under 4% to 16.1%.
• Claimant proportions have increased for all age groups but young people were still the most likely to be claiming Jobseekers Allowance: in March 2009 (7.6%).
• Redundancy rates for young people have increased more than for older age groups: in the three months to March 2009, the rate for 16-24 year olds was 12.7% higher than the previous year compared to a rise of 7.6% for 25-34 year olds.

Looks like life might be getting tougher for brand managers relying on the Yoof Market . Dick Stroud

US consumers reconsider retirement

McKinsey has just published some research about how the recession has affected Americans views about when they intend to retire.

The company publishes something it calls the Retirement Readiness Index. This measures the financial preparedness of households to retire. It is currently at 63, whilst 100 represent the level necessary to maintain a current standard of living. A figure of 80 represents what is is necessary to avoid making large reductions in spending on basics needs such as housing, food and health care.

The above chart shows the attitude of different types of people to their retirement plans.

Note that the high net worth group is the one intending to delay their retirement the longest.

What does this mean? I guess it is a combination of two things. The high net worth group probably has more opportunities to extend their period of time working AND they understand the dire nature of the way the recession has impacted people’s wealth. The Mass Market is living in cloud cuckoo land. Dick Stroud

The UK recession is good for lots of people

All is not doom and gloom.

The way the recession is affecting consumers in the UK is nothing like the previous bad times.

The economic pundits keep comparing it with the really bad times we had in 1990 but as this chart from the excellent presentation from Lord Turner at the FSA shows, interest payments are now much smaller as a percentage of income than back then.

In his speech he says

The extent to which mortgagees have benefited from this fall has been highly variable.

Some – with tracker mortgages – are enjoying spectacular decreases in mortgage interest payments, some much milder benefits, but only a minority of people (for instance, among subprime borrowers coming off very low fixed-rate deals) are likely to face a material rise in mortgage payments. And on average the effect is very significant, with total household disposable income after taxes and mortgage interest payments, actually up 6% over the year to Q4 2008.

Falling house prices may shift many people into negative equity, and a rise in unemployment will produce an increase in arrears and defaults, but compared to the early 1990s, we are less likely to see mortgage repayment problems among the vast majority of people who, even under the most extreme forecasts for unemployment, will still be in a job.

The distinction between the employed and the unemployed in the UK is huge. You might be employed and feeling grumpy and frightened about the future but actually you are doing financially OK - even more than that you might be doing very well.

If you are unemployed then the chances of you getting a new job is remote and you are really feeling the pain.

Marketers need to understand the difference between real and perceived pain and adapt their campaigns accordingly. Dick Stroud

Employment of Australian over-50s on the up

It looks like Australia is following the trend in the US with the recession hitting youth rather than 50-plus employment.

The Bureau of Statistics shows that the under 25s lost 91,500 full-time jobs in the year to February, people over 50 added 104,000 full-time jobs.

More unexpectedly, while the number of under-25s who were unemployed or out of the workforce shot up by 129,000 over the year, the number of over-50s unemployed, retired or taking time out shrank by 3000.

Why the surge in 50-plus employment? Is it to replenish their coffers, badly hit by the plunging stock market and interest rates, or to pay for their unemployed kids? Dick Stroud

Self employment and the 50-plus

For ages I have been talking about the business opportunities that exist for companies to assist older people start their own business.

Either because of necessity (i.e. being made redundant) or because it seems like a good idea, an increasing number of the 50-plus will finish their working life working for themselves rather than somebody else.

This project researches the number of new independent companies set up by older people (the report uses the term “third age founders” – not my favourite) and compares their growth and innovative performance compared to businesses set up by younger entrepreneurs.

This table is taken from the report and shows that self-employment is a way of life for 22.8% of the 50-plus-to-retirement, economically active male population. I will be coming back to this project and research that has been completed by Standard Life on the subject. Dick Stroud

Insights into the concerns of the over-50s

Beyond Westminster, is a BBC radio programme that as the name implies is about issues of UK politics. This Saturday it was all about the attitudes and values held by of older voters and the implications for the policies of the main political parties – and for the other age groups in the population.

I really recommend you download this podcast and have a listen. Whilst the theme of the programme is about the political issues the research and the dialogue has a lot of consequences for marketers.

Joining the programme's host (Andrew Rawnsley) are three ‘thinking’ politicians – a minority in the UK – who talk a lot of sense.

If you want to another insight into the mind of the over-50s you have 18 days left to look at the Channel 4 Despatches programme “Too Old to Work”. If you are outside the UK you might have problems accessing this (you will need IE – it doesn’t work with Firefox). Select the 9th Feb programme. I warn you it is horribly depressing. Dick Stroud

Employment issues of the 50-plus

I have always seen the employment issues affecting the 50-plus being the mirror image of those of marketing. For a while I toyed with the idea of writing a book on the subject but couldn’t find the extra few hours in the days that were required.

I still keep an interest in the subject since marketing and employment issues are integrally linked.

I have mentioned items of research done by PRIME a few times in this blog but thought it worth a posting of its own.

PRIME provides free information, events and training to help older people get back into work by starting their own business.

It is a charity with a top-drawn pedigree – it was founded by The Prince of Wales (the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise) and has recently gained a slug of money from Bank of America to help with its activities.

I reckon it is the best source of information about what is going on with employment of the UK’s over-50s. Just have a look at these couple of bits of research and commentary.

The other thing it is worth looking at is the web site’s use of an audio responder. I am amazed how well it works. Dick Stroud

Retirement - what's that?

If the following statements from this week’s Business Week are correct, and I think they are, then there is a traumatic change taking place to the dynamics of the market. None of its ideas are new, but when they all appear in the same place it highlights the magnitude that is unfolding.

The recession is making clear what we've suspected for a long time. The concept of not working and embracing leisure for the last third of one's life isn't practical for most people.

Put it this way: Survey after survey has shown that a majority of aging baby boomers plan on working in retirement. Well, that plan is coming true.

A seismic shift in the economy and workplace is making it easier for an aging population to labour longer. An information- and services-dominated economy will ease the transition to longer working lives.

The day of retirement reckoning is here for less happy reasons, too. For the second time in eight years, savers have watched in horror as their pension savings and other retirement savings were hit with sharp declines. This time around, the household wealth destruction is even greater because of the nationwide fall in home prices.

But wait, there's more: The funding of social security is widely acknowledged to be broken and is a strain on family finances. Even with Medicare coverage (in the UK’s case the NHS) after age 65, the elderly are finding it necessary to pay for a greater percentage of their overall medical bill.

The solution: work longer.

The writer of the article throws in a few crumbs of hope.

More than making ends meet, work is physically and mentally energizing. It keeps the mind active and dementia at bay. For many people, the workplace is a social environment, with birthday celebrations and coffee klatches. To be sure, you may want to say goodbye to your current office mates for the last time. But that doesn't mean you won't want to work.

The next article in Business Week is about why “Hard-pressed companies forced to make layoffs tend to cut younger workers while retaining those over 55.”

This seems to be the reverse from what is happening in the UK.

The article continues…

Companies nationwide are laying off workers by the tens of thousands. But many are trying to spare the post-55 set from the axe, a reversal of the top-down trends in past waves of layoffs. They're being driven by legal concerns—since boomers are in a protected age group—and by a need to keep experienced hands in place to keep the companies running and positioned for an upturn. "Seniority matters," says the director of the Sloan Centre on Aging & Work at Boston College.

What the hell is going on?

Sorry, but don’t look to me for the answers. Right now all I can do is try and gather and understand the data.

But, just think about what all this means for a post-recession world. Yes, I know that seems a long way away but it is a place some of us might see. The scars of this recession will take years, decades to heal. What we marketers must do is to try and understand what the new market vista will look like and then get on with the job of modifying our marketing to take advantage of it. Dick Stroud

Realities of being older entrepreneurs in the UK.

In these days when banks are on a one-way receiving end of bad news it is good to see that Bank of America is interested in increasing employment amongst the 50-plus – to the tune of £2 million. The research was commissioned on behalf of The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise (PRIME). Here are a few snippets:

16% of those aged 55 to 64 have considered, but not realised, their ambition of establishing their own business.

The number of businesses launched by people aged over 50 has increased by half over a period of 10 years and this age group now accounts for 15% of all business start-ups in England and Wales.

54% of the 50+ age group currently seeking work feel that the current challenging financial environment will have a detrimental effect on their employment prospects.

70% of businesses started by people over 55 are on average still operating after six years, compared to just 19% overall

I have been banging on for ages about the opportunities for businesses to see older people starting and running small businesses as a distinct market. Hopefully this research means a few more companies to wake up to the fact and do something about it. Dick Stroud

Retirement work – a fast growing market

There has always been a need for older people to seek new types of employment when they depart their final employer – even if that employer was themselves. Some did it for fun some did it because they needed the extra cash. The events of the past few months means a lot more older people will be doing it for latter reason.

This article provides an insight into the situation in the US. AARP saw dramatic evidence of the demand for knowledge, about working past retirement, when 2,000 people attended its September annual job fair, more than double the previous year's attendance. The UK is in a very similar position. Lots of older people gazing at their pension's statement wondering how the hell they will fund the next 20 years.

This demand for income generating activities is an opportunity in its own right. One UK organisation that is recognising the need to equip the older citizen with enterprise skills is the Government. I will be writing about this is more detail in the near future.

For today I suggest that accountants, franchising operators, recruiting companies …. recognise this market demand and start focusing on the older post-retirement worker. Dick Stroud

Are the 50-plus recession proof – part 2?

The Sunday Telegraph had an article titled: “Keeping up with the Joneses”. I have to admit to an interest in this piece since I was interviewed by the journalist. My 20 mins on the phone distilled to about 3 lines of text and didn’t represent exactly what I said but that is the way of things.

The main thrust of the article, one I have not seen before, is that the US has much more positive attitude to ageing in the workplace than the UK. Now I come to think about it I instinctively think that is true.

The UK is portrayed as a place where reaching the age of 50 (in truth it is much younger than that) is a bit like catching the Black Death. This is certainly true in ‘management’ jobs but is probably becoming less pronounced in retail and lower grade clerical roles. As I discussed in it is not all rosy getting old the numbers about 50-plus employment are far from clear.

I suspect that we will increasingly see older people in the workplace. Not because of the government legislation, not because the CSR policies of companies but become it is becoming so difficult recruiting employable younger workers. Dick Stroud

Over-50s forced back to work to meet rising bills

This was the headline The Daily Mail – a paper with a high 50-plus readership – and was in response to the latest figures from the Office of Statistics showing that about 60% of the people who found a job over the last year were over 50.

Of the 296,000 jobs created over the last 12 months, 58% went to people born before 1958. The paper then made the jump of logic with this statement: “Experts said that the older worker boom will continue as financial problems force people to keep on working.”

Anyway, whatever the reason, the ONS figures show there are 7.8 million workers over 50 in Britain, which is the highest figure since records began - and the number of older workers is growing faster than any other age group.

The ‘experts’ in question appear to be the Age and Employment Network who are quoted as saying that even more older workers who want jobs, but cannot get them. Of the 1.2million people working over state pension age, they think a further 2.4 million want, or need, paid work.

The organisation is quoted as saying: "This is not just to pay for life's little luxuries, but for the basics of food, fuel and lighting."

In the same batch of news stories is another with the headline: “Puzzling jobs figures show over fifties account for majority of rise in employment”.

The puzzle is this, as explained by the head economist of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Taken at face value the ONS figures suggest that most new jobs at present are going to people aged 50 and over – this age cohort accounts for almost 6 in 10 of the additional people in work last year. But this sits oddly with the observation that most new jobs are being taken by migrant workers – a group overwhelmingly aged under 40.

The CIPD reckons this conundrum is explained by the fact that migrant workers are taking the major share of new job vacancies but older workers are better able, than in the past, to hold onto their jobs. In jargon terms, over 50s employment is rising because of increased job retention not increased hiring of older workers.

Just goes to show you have to dig behind the numbers to get to the truth. I am not sure either The Mail or the CIPD know the real answer. Dick Stroud

Importance of over-50s to the employment market

Here is a disturbing Factlet.

The Office for National Statistics said the over-50s accounted for more than half the rise in employment seen in the three months to November - a period that coincided with turmoil on the financial markets. Officials said the economy created 175,000 new jobs over the quarter - of which more than 90,000 were filled by those over 50.

I can see the UK reaching a point where large parts of the economy are primarily staffed with Eastern Europeans and the 50-plus. Whilst this is happening the numbers of NEETS (young people not in education or employment) continues to rise.

There are lots of social, political, economic and marketing issues that result from these facts. I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. Dick Stroud

Older Brits work longer

The proportion of people working past the state pension age is running at record levels.

Men above 65 and women above 60 accounted for just under half of the 180,000 rise in employment during the 12 months to the end of May (Office for National Statistics).

The head of The Age and Employment Network, said: "Our impression is that many people are accepting jobs below their qualifications and capacities, often out of economic necessity - many stay in work beyond state retirement age because of the decline in incomes from defined contributions pension schemes”.

So are Brits working longer because they have or want to? As they dash into their 60s are they starting new and fulfilling careers or filling shelves in the local mall?

As usual the truth embraces all of these scenarios. My guess is that there are a few more people re-stocking shelves than becoming oldie entrepreneurs. Dick Stroud

Here is an economic puzzle for you to think about

How can a country have both problems with shortages of workers whilst at the same time the amount of money being spent by consumers remains weak? Normally, shortages of labour lead to increasing prices and increasing consumer expenditure.

Give up?

Well this is what is happening in geriatric Japan. As great swathes of high paid workers retire they are being replaced by much younger people who are paid less and hence spend less. Japan is experiencing labour shortages and falling/static consumer spending.

This phenomenon is something that Europe will experience. Strange stuff, the economic impact of the aging population. Dick Stroud

Grown-up enough to become an entrepreneur

Nearly half the US’s self-employed workers—7.4 million—are boomers (U.S. Department of Labor). This figure is expected to climb as people retire from one career to start another, lose their jobs or simply want the independence and flexibility of working for themselves.

"I am willing to bet that over the next 10 years, entrepreneurship is going to increase for people 50 and older, and especially for those 65 and older," says the head of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, which advances entrepreneurship in America.

This article from AARP gives good background to the subject.

This situation is exactly the same in the UK.

Let me give you a tip that is a sure-fire-winner; services supporting 50-plus start-up businesses and franchise companies are in for a boom time during the next decade. You will see a lot more companies like bizstarters hitting the streets. Dick Stroud