Abstract
We describe the relationship between non-employment rates and age in Britain and consider how this relationship has been changing with the economic cycle. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey for survey years 1991–2008 and Understanding Society for 2009, we show that non-employment rates have changed most for people in the youngest and oldest age groups. Young people have been hit particularly hard by the current recession and non-employment rates are higher now than during the early-1990s recession, especially for those without educational qualifications. Among older men and women, non-employment rates have been in longer-term decline and the current recession has had a less marked effect. Hence the U-shaped non-employment/age relationship has rotated clockwise over the last decade.
Highlights
One of the most important determinants of the evolution of individuals’ life chances is how their participation in paid work varies over the life course, and it is well known that there is a broadly U-shaped relationship between the probability of non-employment and age on average
Using data from the first wave of Understanding Society relating to 2009 and from 18 waves of British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data covering 1991– 2008, we have described the U-shaped relationship between non-employment rates and age, and considered how the details of this relationship have changed with the economic cycle
The at-risk population for our analysis includes young people and discouraged workers, and individuals older than the state retirement pension age
Summary
One of the most important determinants of the evolution of individuals’ life chances is how their participation in paid work varies over the life course, and it is well known that there is a broadly U-shaped relationship between the probability of non-employment and age on average (see e.g. ONS 2009, Anyadike-Danes 2007). We describe trends in non-employment rates by age for men and women, highlighting the differences between recession and boom years.
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