Public First has published a new briefing note with Phoenix Insights on ‘What is driving the Great Retirement?’. You can access the report here.

Public First’s research included an analysis of available datasets in the UK, Germany and the USA on labour force participation. As well as polling of over 3,000 adults over the age of 50 in the UK, Germany and USA, plus a booster sample of over 1,500 50-64 year olds who are not in the workforce.

Our new international polling shows that the UK stands out compared to Germany and the USA as:

• Having significantly more negative attitudes toward work (both whilst working and when considering
  returning to work)
• Views towards work having been changed more profoundly by the coronavirus pandemic

Our polling also suggests that higher levels of financial comfort among this age group in the UK may have enabled increased levels of economic inactivity, with this effect being particularly pronounced for home owners.

Our findings, in line with recent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, challenge the view that poor health is the main driving factor for increased flows into economic inactivity. This is because:

• The flow to economic inactivity due to ill health has been smaller than flows for other reasons since the pandemic
• Much of the analysis to date does not take into account cohort effects
• A large number of people do not want to work, or are retired – rather than it being the case that they are being prevented from working

However, our polling does show that the UK has experienced relatively poor access to health care since the pandemic, compared to other countries, which could explain our finding that flows back into activity from those inactive due to ill health have decreased.

The full tables can be found here.