Employment and finances in your early 50s

Your 50s are a very important period for understanding your working lives. At this age in life, most people are employed and have reached their peak earnings – but inequalities persist and some are still struggling financially. As you move closer to the State Pension Age, many people are thinking about how they’ll manage in retirement.

What we asked you

When we caught up with you for the Life in Your Early 50s Survey, you told us about your employment and finances. Our researchers used this information to see how your generation is doing financially. They also compared your experiences with those of the generation before you, using data collected from participants in another study, born in 1958.

What the researchers found

When we visited you in your early 50s, more than four in five of you were in work or looking for work. You worked 37 hours per week, on average. Among those of you who had permanently left the workforce, the majority were from the lowest income homes and poor health was the most common reason.

Full- and part-time work

Among those of you in work in your early 50s, more than three quarters were working full-time. More women than men worked part-time at this age – three in 10 women compared to just one in 20 men.

The overall proportion of men and women in work was similar to the 1958 cohort at the same age. However, BCS70 women were working around three hours more per week, on average, than women in the 1958 cohort.

Domestic duties

Despite women of your generation working more hours than their baby boomer peers, those living with a partner said they were still doing most of the domestic chores at home.

Two thirds of the women of your generation said they did most of the laundry, and well over half said they did most of the cleaning, cooking, and shopping. Around one in five men said they did most of the cooking and shopping, and less than one in 10 said they did most of the cleaning or laundry.

Men were more likely than women to feel that these chores were ‘shared equally’ in their homes. There were some signs of progress towards a better gender balance for your generation – a fair few more women in the 1958 cohort felt they got stuck with all the laundry!

Money worries

We asked you how you felt about your financial situation. Around a quarter of you said you were ‘just getting by’ or finding it difficult.

Many of you shared concerns about your future finances. Around two thirds said you worry about how much you will have to live on in retirement, with women tending to worry about this more than men.

Worries about retirement were most common among those on the lowest incomes. However more than half of the most affluent study members shared similar concerns.

Employment, finances and health

Just under one in 10 study members were not working in their early 50s due to either short- or long-term ill health. This was far more likely to affect the least well-off – one in four study members from the lowest income homes were out of work due to ill health, compared to one in 100 of the most affluent.

Why this research matters

These findings provide important new evidence about how your generation is faring during a challenging period for the UK and global economy. Highlighting the significance of the findings, co-author, Dr Vanessa Moulton (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) said: “According to official figures, the number of people in the UK who are economically inactive due to long-term ill-health accounts for 7% of the working-age population. Our findings suggest the situation may be even worse for some members of gen X, particularly those in lower income households.

“With the State Pension age increasing to 67, the government needs to provide the necessary support for people to stay in or re-join the workforce. Employment policies must focus on improving wages, job security, and working conditions to make work pay for all and especially the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Read the full research paper

‘Employment and finances: initial findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study at Age 51’, by Sam Parsons, Vanessa Moulton, Bozena Wielgoszewska and George Ploubidis was published on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies website.