Would you be tempted to 'unretire' after quitting work early? The mystery of Britain's missing workers

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First we had the great resignation and now we may be seeing a new trend emerge 'unretirement'.

Amid the turmoil of the pandemic, Britain's economy threw up the puzzle of a dramatic rise in economic inactivity - as about 565,000 people dropped out of the workforce to a position where they were neither working or looking for work.

These missing workers aren't claiming unemployment benefits but are somehow getting by under their own steam.

The phenonomen is great enough that the ONS and Bank of England have looked into it and an inquiry by a House of Lords committee says that early retirement among those aged 50 to 64 may be the main driver of the trend.

But there are also tentative signs of some of these people 'unretiring', so what is going on?

On this podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert delve into the issue. Why do people want to take early retirement, why may some now be returning to work - and what would tempt more back to boost productivity and the economy?

Plus, the team look at the stock market winners and losers of 2022 - and why the FTSE 100 managed to keep its head while other major markets suffered.

Also on the agenda are log burners: can they really be cheaper than your central heating or are they just a feature for the home?

And finally, used car prices have continued to defy the usual way of things and rise again this year, is that now coming to an end and what were the models that rose the most in value over 2022?

Merry Christmas.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money Podcast. I'm Georgie Frost and joining me and editor Simon Lambert today is Deputy Editor Helen Crane.
0:08.8	And coming up, the rise of the unretirement. How many woes are forcing early retirees back into the jobs market.
0:15.8	We take a look at the Futsi 100's winners and losers of 2022.
0:20.0	It was electric heaters last week. Now we turn our attention
0:22.4	to log burners and ask if they're really cheaper to run than central heating and in-demand
0:27.8	drives. Simon will reveal the used cars that have risen most in value over the last year.
0:34.1	Does yours feature in the list? Don't be getting to up to date with all the latest breaking
0:37.2	money news. Just go to this ismoney.com.com or download the app.
0:42.2	Market updates and conversations around the financial world don't have to be boring.
0:46.4	The Digest and Invest Podcast by Eatoro is a great way to tune into what's happening in a fun
0:51.1	and easily digestible format. Discover the Digest and Invest
0:54.8	Podcast at Eutoro.com forward slash academy forward slash podcasts. But first, the cost of living
1:00.0	crisis is forcing many older Brits who left the job market since 2020 back into the workplace.
1:06.6	Fresh data from the ONS reveals money is the key motivation for almost two-thirds of post-COVID
1:12.0	job levers, aged 50 to 65, who are considering coming back. It means the total number of people
1:18.4	class as economically inactive as well is starting to fall. Before we dig into this, Simon,
1:25.0	just give us a bit of an explainer, if you would. What does economically
1:29.2	inactive mean? If you're economically inactive, it means that you are a person who is neither
1:36.6	working nor looking for work. So you've just fallen out of the work arena altogether.
1:51.0	And these people have been something of a puzzle since the COVID pandemic struck. The UK has seen a sharp rise in economically inactive people.
1:58.0	Many of them are, we're talking about people here who aren't claiming benefits.
2:04.1	They're not claiming, you know, job seekers allowance or whatever you call it nowadays.
	...

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