Signal Older people take a growing share of work and consumption in first-wave countries

Summary

Population ageing is changing the business environment along two axes at once, the composition of the workforce and the structure of consumer markets. In first-wave countries the share of people aged 65 and over is projected to rise from 17 percent today to 29 percent by 2050. People aged 50 and over are expected to account for 37 percent of total working hours in 2050, up from 32 percent in 2023. On the consumption side, the share of total spending by people aged 60 and over is projected to rise from 21 percent in 2023 to 31 percent in 2050. The author concludes that firms need job redesign, lifelong learning and retraining to make effective use of older workers. Older consumers are emerging as a main spending group that businesses can no longer treat as a niche.