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First Results from the Survey of Older Workers, 2008
Chapter 2
Labour force attachment of older workers
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Employment and retirement among older workers in Canada
The Survey of Older Workers was designed to gather information on older Canadians who were still directly attached to the labour market or had had a recent attachment. As such, the results do not represent those of all older Canadians.
To place this in some context, over five million Canadians were represented by the Survey of Older Workers (e.g. between the age of 50 and 75 who were working or had worked in the previous 2 years). By contrast, the general population counts (regardless of labour force attachment) as reported by the 2008 Labour Force Survey, showed nearly 9 million people aged 50 to 75 in Canada. This, in effect works out to an exclusion of some 4 million people aged 50 to 75 from the results presented in this report. Most of these excluded people would have been retired or otherwise detached from the labour force for over 2 years and it is clear that their experience with regard to the labour force may differ substantially from those of their attached cohort. As depicted in Table 2.1, the rate of exclusion logically becomes more pronounced as age increases (along with the likelihood of retirement).
Nevertheless, the survey results represents nearly 20% of the working aged population (15 and older).
Overall, the employment rate of the population of older workers was 86% with a further 4% indicating that they are still active in the labour force (not working but looking for work).1 The remaining older workers had either retired or were unable to work (though they had worked in the previous 24 months). Again, it is worth noting that these percentages are skewed by the population under investigation. The labour force survey shows that fewer than fifty-five percent of people aged 50 to 75 were working at the time of the survey (2008).
Of those who said that they were not working (the last 3 categories in Table A.2.1), 59% said that they were retired at the time of the interview.2 Consistent with the National median mentioned earlier, the median age of this retired group was 62 (compared to a median of 55 years for those who were not retired). Gender is more or less equally split in each of these work categories with slightly more males indicating that they were working and previously retired (58% male; 42% female) and not working and unable to work (54% males; 46% female.).
Chart 2.1 (below) illustrates the age distribution of the 90% of older workers who are still in the labour force (either working or looking for work). Fully three-quarters of those still in the labour force were under the age of 60 and only 25% of those over 60 still held some labour force attachment.
Chart 2.1 Grouped age older workers still in the labour force (working or looking for work)
Provincial distributions of work status show a slightly lower percentage of older workers with jobs in the Atlantic provinces (81% for the 4 Atlantic provinces, versus 87% for the rest of Canada), but, generally speaking, there is very little significant difference in the provincial distributions. However, as evidenced by Chart 2.2, of those who were not working, the distribution of retired versus not retired demonstrated considerable variation with the largest percentage of retirees in the Prairies and the smallest in the Atlantic region.
Chart 2.2 Incidence of retirement amongst older workers who were not working by region, 2008
Job satisfaction and stress for older workers
By and large, older workers in Canada indicated that they were satisfied with their jobs. Over 90% of workers felt very satisfied or satisfied with their current position despite the fact that more than 40% found that position to be either "quite a bit" or "extremely" stressful. Indeed, while gender and age have little effect, older workers in the Atlantic Region are considerably less stressed at work (33%) than those in the rest of the country, particularly in Ontario and Quebec which peaks at 48% of older workers reporting a high level of stress at work.
Chart 2.3 Percentage of older workers indicating high stress in their current job by Region
Likewise, the age of the respondent (Chart 2.4) produced a distinct pattern as stress clearly decreased as the age of the older worker increased.3
Chart 2.4 Percentage of older workers indicating high stress in their current job by grouped age
Self employment
There is a significant difference between older workers and the general working age population in the proportion working as paid employees versus those who were self-employed. During collection of the Survey of Older Workers, the LFS reported that 85% of working Canadians over 15 years of age were paid employees working for an employer; the remaining 15% were self-employed.4 By contrast, The SOW demonstrates that 77% of Older Workers worked for an employer and 23% declared themselves to be self-employed. This difference can in part be explained by the older male workers. While the gender composition of paid employees is similar (53% of paid employees are females while 47% are males). Sixty-eight percent (68%) of self employed were men and only 32% were women. Women in the study followed the Canadian average with 85% working for an employer and 15% self-employed. It was the older male workers who pushed the mean away from the national average with 71% working for an employer and 29% self-employed. Table 2.2 shows the percentage of older self-employed workers steadily increases as one moves from east to west.
Table 2.2 Regional distribution of employed and self-employed older workers
There is likewise a slight variation in education between these two groups of workers with a greater percentage of self-employed workers having at least some university education (33% of self employed versus 26% for paid employees). This is mirrored at the other extreme with a larger percentage of paid employees (35%) with high school or less, compared to fewer than 30% of self-employed workers with this lower level of educational attainment.
Full time, part-time, permanent or temporary
The survey revealed nearly 3.8 million of the employed working full-time (84%) and less than 1 million working part-time (16%), these figures are consistent with national averages of workers aged 15 and over. As with the general working aged population (15 years and older and with the population 15 to 49), a significantly higher percentage of older female workers (24% of women versus 10% for male older workers) have part-time rather than full-time jobs. Equally consistent with the general working age population is the distribution of temporary versus permanently employed older workers with 91% of workers in a permanent work situation.5
Income of Older Workers
The SOW collected gross personal income information in four categories, the lowest category was for those earning less than $25,000 per year and the highest was for those earning over $75,000 per year. Not surprisingly, older workers who are out of the labour force, working part-time or working in temporary jobs have lower annual incomes than those still in the labour force, working full-time or in a permanent job. Self-employed workers likewise have a larger percentage at the lowest income level, but, unlike the other categories, the self-employed also have a larger percentage at the very highest earning category, (See Table A.2.11).
Regardless of the work situation, female older workers are consistently over represented at the lowest earning category and under represented at the highest, particularly when compared to the income of their male counterparts.
Notes:
- Unless otherwise stated all tables and figures in this document are based on data from the Survey of Older Workers.
- This 59% is equivalent to 9% of Older Workers in the SOW. By contrast the Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS, 2009), a survey representative of the general Canadian population 18 and older) found that nearly 40% of Canadians aged 50 to 75 consider themselves to be retired. While a portion of these avowed "retirees" may in fact still be working (the CFCS did not probe this concept), the differences underscore the fact that the SOW is not a general surveyof older Canadians, but only of those who still hold some attachment to the labour market or, at least, held some attachment in the past 2 years.
- While the correlation is significant, it is not particularly high. The Eta statistics, a measure of correlation (directionality) between nominal and interval variables was observed at .132 on the continuous age variable.
- Indeed, the average percentage of employees versus self-employed for the age group 15 to 49 was 88% working for an employer and 12% self-employed (2009, Labour Force Survey)
- The Labour Force Survey (January 2009) reported 90% of Canadians 15 years and older where employed in a permanent job.
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