The Daily. Thursday, May 16, 2002

Seniors at work

One out of every 13 seniors aged 65 and over was still at work according to the 1996 Census, a ratio that is likely to increase as the 9.8 million baby boomers in Canada get closer to retirement age.

The article "Seniors at work", available today in the online version of Perspectives on labour and income, provides a statistical profile of seniors who were employed at the time of the 1996 Census. Similar information from the 2001 Census will be released on February 11, 2003.

An estimated 255,200 seniors aged 65 and over were employed in 1996, and an additional 15,700 reported being unemployed, for a total labour force of 271,000.

The majority (68%) of people employed in this age group were men, even though they accounted for only 43% of the population aged 65 and over. As the baby boom generation ages, it is likely that the participation rate of older women in the labour force will move closer to that of their male counterparts.

In 1996, seniors aged 65 to 69 accounted for 59% of employed seniors. Those aged 70 to 74 made up an additional 25%. Nearly 40,000 individuals aged 75 and over reported being employed, 16% of the total.

Working seniors were almost four times more likely to be self-employed than younger workers. In 1996, 46% of employed people 65 and over were self-employed, compared with only 13% of workers aged 15 to 64. Most of these seniors (57%) were working owners of unincorporated businesses without paid help.

Highly educated Canadians are much more likely than those with less schooling to continue working beyond the expected age of retirement. In 1996, 1 in 5 seniors with a university degree was employed, compared with less than 1 in 20 seniors with an elementary school education only.

Twenty occupations accounted for half of total employment among senior workers. Farmers and farm managers alone made up 18% of this total, with 45,200 employed seniors in 1996.

The second most popular type of job among seniors was a sales occupation of some sort. The third most common occupation group was janitors, caretakers, and building superintendents.

Older workers were more common on the Prairies, particularly in Saskatchewan, where they represented 5% of total employment.

According to Statistics Canada's demographic projections, the number of seniors aged 65 to 74 is expected to rise from 2,146,900 in 2001 to an estimated 2,231,400 in 2006, an increase of 84,500.

The article "Seniors at work" is now available in the May 2002 online issue of Perspectives on labour and income, Vol. 3, no. 5 (75-001-XIE, $5/$48).

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Doreen Duchesne (613-951-6379; doreen.duchesne@statcan.gc.ca), Labour and Household Surveys Analysis Division.