People aged 50 and above (i.e. ‘50+’ or ‘older’) accounted for 31% of the working age population in 2023 (those aged 16-64), 30% of those in work and 19% of the unemployed.
Of the 2 million IT specialists based in the UK in 2023, just over one fifth (22% or 446,000) were aged 50 or above, and if representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have been an additional 148,000 IT specialists in the UK aged 50 or more.
Across the UK representation of older people in IT positions was lowest in London and the East Midlands where just 17% in each case were aged 50 and above.
Representation of older workers varied from around one in seven (14%) programmers/developers to almost four in ten (39%) IT directors.
In 2023 there were estimated to be around 13,000 unemployed IT specialists in the UK aged 50 and over, equating to an unemployment rate of 2.9% - a notably higher rate than that for IT specialists aged 16-49 (1.6%).
Older IT specialists were more than twice as likely to be working on a self-employed basis as their younger counterparts (11% versus 5%) and were also much more likely to be working part-time (8% versus 3%).
IT specialists aged 50 and above were also more likely than others to be working in micro business sites (22% compared with 19% of those in younger age groups during 2023).
The median hourly earnings for older IT specialists in 2023 was £28 per hour - 17% more than that for IT specialists as a whole.
Older IT specialists are notably more likely to hold ‘responsible positions’ – almost half (45%) having managerial/supervisory status in their job (compared with 40% of younger IT specialists).
Older IT specialists are less likely to have an HE qualification and in 2023 only 67% of those aged 50 and above had a qualification at this level compared with 77% of those aged 16-49.
Younger IT specialists were also much more likely to hold an IT degree than those aged 50 and above (10% versus 6% in 2023).
Older IT specialists are more likely to obtain employment through in-work connections and much less likely to do so via direct applications than their younger counterparts.
