Demografia, direitos adquiridos, ou a análise do contexto (parte VI)

Parte V.

No FT de ontem um tema que em Portugal levará muita gente a uma síncope, "It's time we stopped talking about retirement"

"A second reason I resisted the R word is that I had no plans to stop working. I had begun preparing for my post-FT life several years earlier, spending evenings and weekends training to become a counsellor, with the hope of helping others deal with their career dilemmas. When the time came to leave full-time journalism, I discovered my bosses were happy for me to continue contributing articles and teaching in the executive education business I had helped set up. So I have settled contentedly into a three-part career of writing, lecturing and counselling.

I am not alone. The number of UK over-65s still working rose to 1.47mn in the quarter to June 2022, an all-time record, according to the Office for National Statistics. This compares with 1.1mn in 2014. Much of the increase was driven by part-time work and self-employment.  

Part of the reason people carry on working is financial. Rising prices and the ending of gold-plated company pensions mean many cannot afford to stop working entirely. Even the best of the old-fashioned private sector final-salary pension schemes provide annual increases that fall far short of current inflation.

But there is also the desire to continue to matter. Moving on from a full-on job brings with it more identity issues than simply accepting one’s age. There is a loss of status. The question “what do you do?” requires a new answer. The “well, I used to . . . ” response palls after a while.

Many 60- and 70-somethings I come across want to continue being players rather than spectators. Having more time to watch sport, travel or go to the theatre has its attractions. But for many, there is still a drive to participate, to be in the fray.  

One of the problems with giving up work entirely is that you could be a long time retired. The average 65-year-old can expect to live into their mid-80s in developed countries, according to OECD figures. And many are living longer than that. Worldwide, there were nearly 500,000 people aged 100 or more in 2015, four times as many as in 1990, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center report, which said the number of centenarians was likely to reach 3.7mn by 2050.

Health problems start to intrude at some point. But healthier eating and exercise (one of the pleasures of self-employment means you decide when to go to the gym) help stave them off.

It is not just that many older people want to work; ageing societies will need them. Bain, the strategy consultancy, predicts that a quarter of the US workforce will be aged 55 or more by 2031. In Germany the figure will be 27 per cent, in Italy 32 per cent and in Japan 38 per cent."