Counting on Experience: Why Over-50s Hold the Key to Industrial Strategy Success

This report reveals a critical blind spot in the UK’s Industrial Strategy: the ageing workforce.
With 3.4 million workers over 50, and 450,000 over 65, employed across eight growth-driving sectors, older workers are both participants in the economy and critical to its future.

Key Data Points:

• £31 billion in annual output is lost due to early retirement, ill health, or other exits by over-50s.
• Seven of eight sectors have older-than-average workforces, with defence and advanced manufacturing leading at 38% and 36% over-50 representation.
• Job tenure is longer among older workers, but exit ages are falling, especially in financial services (average exit age: 64).
• Gender and health disparities persist: women face widening pay gaps with age, and 15% of over-65s report disabilities.
• Reskilling is urgent: exits by over-50s often match or exceed the number of under-25s entering these sectors.
• Pension coverage varies, with 24% of creative industry workers not enrolled in any scheme—raising concerns about retirement readiness.

Why It Matters:

For business leaders in industrial sectors shaping workforce strategy, this report is a wake-up call. Retaining and reskilling older workers is both a social good and a business imperative.