Percentage distribution of labour market position by age group and census
| Labour market position and census | Men | Women | ||||||
| 55–59 | 60–64 | 65–69 | N | 50–54 | 55–59 | 60–64 | N | |
| In work | ||||||||
| 1971 | 90.4 | 78.4 | 29.5 | 28541 | 56.3 | 48.9 | 27.4 | 21377 |
| 1981 | 82.2 | 62.7 | 16.9 | 22519 | 60.6 | 49.0 | 21.4 | 20179 |
| 1991 | 70.2 | 48.8 | 12.7 | 17958 | 63.2 | 49.2 | 21.9 | 19202 |
| 2001 | 70.7 | 47.5 | 13.8 | 19149 | 68.9 | 54.9 | 25.5 | 25681 |
| Unemployed | ||||||||
| 1971 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 0.5 | 1255 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 604 |
| 1981 | 7.9 | 10.1 | 0.2 | 2518 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 0.2 | 711 |
| 1991 | 8.9 | 8.2 | 0.3 | 2377 | 3.5 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 975 |
| 2001 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 980 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 664 |
| Retired | ||||||||
| 1971 | 1.3 | 7.2 | 68.4 | 8938 | 1.8 | 5.6 | 28.1 | 5629 |
| 1981 | 1.6 | 13.9 | 79.1 | 11623 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 20.3 | 3454 |
| 1991 | 6.3 | 23.2 | 80.6 | 13842 | 2.2 | 8.9 | 49.9 | 8654 |
| 2001 | 8.7 | 24.7 | 78.3 | 14147 | 2.6 | 10.2 | 61.6 | 10647 |
| Permanently sick | ||||||||
| 1971 | 5.0 | 9.0 | 1.3 | 2186 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 1189 |
| 1981 | 7.9 | 13.0 | 3.4 | 3304 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 2.3 | 1471 |
| 1991 | 13.8 | 19.0 | 5.9 | 5207 | 7.2 | 9.2 | 4.5 | 2967 |
| 2001 | 13.0 | 19.7 | 5.7 | 5392 | 9.3 | 12.4 | 5.7 | 4569 |
| Other inactive | ||||||||
| 1971 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 113 | 37.7 | 40.6 | 42.5 | 19436 |
| 1981 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 138 | 33.5 | 42.3 | 55.9 | 20056 |
| 1991 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 309 | 24.0 | 29.6 | 23.4 | 10963 |
| 2001 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 1577 | 17.3 | 21.1 | 6.8 | 7662 |
Source: ONS Longitudinal Study, authors' analysis.