Abstract
The participation rate of older people in the labour market is forecast to increase due to demographic changes afoot. For example, low fertility rates, higher life expectancy, and increases in the retirement age will affect labour availability. The working-age population trends indicate that the age group 55–64 years will expand. This trend is bolstered by policy debate about the sustainability of economic and social support systems for the wider population and necessary strategies to keep older workers in labour markets. Within the UK, as the statutory pension age is placed now at 67, changes affecting the national default retirement age (previously age 60 for women and 65 for men) already mean that many older workers will feature in workplaces past historical expectations. A lack of sensitivity about the adjustments older workers needed, due to age-related changes in health and functional capacities, attests the demoted valuing of ageing workers. Despite a rise in the importance of wisdom across cultures, the significance of experience that comes with ageing, however, has become less revered within the UK resulting in less than the institutional promotion of Positive Ageing might depict. This paper draws from a structured review of literature (SLR) which seeks to address the question of what is currently identified as ‘Positive Ageing’ to consider what contributions can be found in current literature that may represent these changes in the UK. The paper concludes that demographic change has stimulated significant re-thinking of workplace strategies for the maintenance of health and well-being of ageing workers at national or governmental policy levels. To ensure sustainability, workability, and productivity in work, however, the concept of Positive Ageing towards later life might be furthered despite that, at the organizational level, its enactment remains incomplete currently post retirement age.
Highlights
Resulting from population ageing predictions for the coming decades, it has become apparent that there will be future demographic upheaval both in the wider society and as a result within the labour market
In line with the systematic reasoning presented by Brewis et al [9] and to clarify the limitations of the results presented, sources selected reviewed only evidence presented in English and excluded books, dissertations and theses solely due to their length given the limited time available
The structured review of literature (SLR) was applied to 35 sources, selected upon a further reading based upon thematic selection from the terms of the search
Summary
Resulting from population ageing predictions for the coming decades, it has become apparent that there will be future demographic upheaval both in the wider society and as a result within the labour market. For the first time, by mid-2014 in the United Kingdom, the average age exceeded 40 [1]. By the year 2040, for both genders, it has been predicted that nearly one in seven will be over the age of 75. One in three babies born can expect to live to 100 [2]. Responses to such change by delaying the age of retirement, potentially significantly impacts upon the composition of the workforce. One that will influence the very nature of the workplace that might have been otherwise overlooked by UK employers [3]
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