§ Sir Andrew BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what percentage of(a) men and (b) women are economically active at age 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 years and over.
§ Mr. OppenheimThe available information from the labour force survey is given in the following table:
Economic activity rates by age—spring 1994 (not seasonally adjusted) Great Britain Per cent. Age (years) Males Females 55 82 64 56 79 59 57 74 57 58 75 51 59 70 45 60 66 34 61 57 30 62 50 25 63 46 21 64 39 18 65 and over 7 3 Source:
Labour force survey.
§ Sir Andrew BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his current estimate of the number of people who leave the work force each year; and if he will differentiate between those who leave due to retirement, ill-health, unemployment and other reasons.
§ Mr. OppenheimOf those people classified as economically inactive—that is, not employed or ILO unemployed—in the spring 1994 labour force survey for Great Britain, 1,020,000 people said that they had been in employment a year earlier. Reasons given for leaving their last job were: retirement, 22 per cent.; ill-health, 16 per cent.; redundancy, dismissal or a temporary job ending, 15 per cent.; other reasons, 47 per cent.
Further, of those people classified as ILO unemployed in spring 1994, 760,000 people said they had been in employment a year earlier. The reasons given for leaving employment were: redundancy or dismissal, 32 per cent.; temporary job ending, 18 per cent.; other reasons, 50 per cent.