Millions of people spend the years before retirement navigating changing careers, caring responsibilities, health challenges and uncertain finances. Yet the statistics used to measure their economic participation reveal only part of the story.

There is a decade in working life that rarely receives the attention it deserves.

Between 55 and 64, people may be enjoying the most experienced and productive years of their careers. Others are struggling to remain employed, searching for work after redundancy, caring for ageing parents or grandchildren, or leaving the labour market earlier than planned.

Official statistics bring all these experiences together under one label: older workers.

The figures tell us how many people are employed, how many are looking for work and how many are outside the labour force. What they rarely reveal is why individuals find themselves in those situations, or whether they have much choice.

As populations age and governments rethink retirement, that distinction is becoming increasingly important.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average employment rate among people aged 55–64 across its member countries was 64.6% in 2024, compared with 80.1% among those aged 25–54.

The difference is striking. But the employment gap raises more questions than it answers.

The people behind the employment rate

Consider two people in their early 60s. One has left a physically demanding job because of deteriorating health. The other has stepped away from a professional career to care for a family member. Neither is employed. Yet their situations, financial security and prospects for returning to work may be entirely different.

Now consider someone who has recently lost a job after decades with the same employer. They may be actively searching for new opportunities, encountering age discrimination or struggling to find positions that match their experience.

For the purposes of employment statistics, all three people are outside paid employment. But only the person actively seeking and available for work would normally be counted as unemployed. The other two may be classified as economically inactive. That classification is useful for measuring labour markets. It tells us considerably less about the human circumstances behind the numbers. For older adults in particular, leaving employment does not always mean retiring voluntarily. Nor does remaining employed necessarily mean having financial security or satisfying work. The challenge is understanding the different routes people take through their later working years.

When unemployment figures hide another story

Unemployment rates can be especially misleading when viewed in isolation. In standard labour statistics, the unemployment rate measures people without work who are actively seeking employment and available to start. It does not include everyone who would like to work. Someone who has stopped searching because suitable jobs appear unavailable may no longer be classified as unemployed. Neither is someone who wants paid employment but cannot currently take a job because of caregiving responsibilities. This matters when comparing older workers across countries. A low unemployment rate among people aged 55–64 might indicate that experienced employees enjoy stable jobs and can find new positions when necessary. But it might also coexist with substantial numbers of people who have already withdrawn from the labour force. That is why employment, unemployment and labour-force participation must be examined together. Each describes something different. None can explain the complete experience of growing older in the labour market.

The invisible contribution of unpaid work

There is another limitation to statistics centered on paid employment: they can obscure the economic and social value of unpaid care. An individual who leaves a job to support a partner with a serious illness may be classified as economically inactive, even though their days are occupied by demanding and essential responsibilities. The same applies to many grandparents caring for grandchildren, or adults helping older relatives remain independent. Their contribution may allow other family members to remain employed and reduce pressure on formal care services. Yet it does not appear as employment in conventional labour-market measures. This distinction becomes particularly important when discussing women in later working life. Caregiving responsibilities and interruptions to paid employment can accumulate over decades, affecting career progression, earnings, pensions and financial independence. By the time people reach their late 50s, inequalities established much earlier may be difficult to reverse. A gender gap in employment among older adults therefore reflects more than the opportunities available at that particular age. It can also reveal the consequences of an entire working life.

One age group, many different realities

Even the familiar category of people aged 55–64 can conceal important differences. A 55-year-old may be managing a growing career and supporting children through education. A 64-year-old may be navigating retirement rules, declining health or the loss of a long-term job. Both belong to the same statistical group. Yet their opportunities and constraints are not necessarily comparable.

Education, occupation, income, disability, family responsibilities and employment history can shape later working life as powerfully as chronological age. Someone working in construction or another physically demanding occupation may face challenges very different from those of a person in a flexible office-based role. Similarly, an experienced professional with financial reserves may be better positioned to change careers than someone who depends on every paycheck.

The OECD’s research on older workers has highlighted disparities in employment outcomes linked to educational attainment. These differences underscore why national averages are only a starting point for understanding later-life economic participation.The question is not simply how many people remain employed after 55, but which people can do so, under what conditions and with what alternatives.

Measuring what matters

The difficulty of capturing these differences is one reason The Silver Times has been exploring a Productive Longevity Index.

The research examines five dimensions of labour-market participation among people aged 55–64: employment, economic activity, unemployment, participation in job-related training and the gender employment gap. The approach recognizes that no single employment statistic can adequately describe the opportunities available to older workers. But it also reveals the boundaries of what such an index can measure. Employment data cannot tell us whether someone enjoys their job. Training participation does not necessarily demonstrate that a worker has useful skills or opportunities for advancement. And a narrow gender employment gap does not, by itself, establish equality in earnings, career quality or retirement security.

An index can organize evidence, expose contrasts and generate better questions. It cannot substitute for understanding people’s lives. For that reason, measuring productive longevity should be seen as part of a broader examination of economic inclusion, not as a final judgment on whether a country is a good place to grow old.

Beyond working longer

The debate about ageing and employment often begins with pressures on pension systems and the economic consequences of longer lives. Those concerns are legitimate. But focusing only on the number of people in work risks overlooking the conditions under which they remain employed, and the circumstances of those who do not. A society may have a high employment rate among older adults while still struggling with unequal opportunities, inadequate job quality or financial insecurity. Another may have a lower employment rate partly because more people have the financial means to retire earlier. Without additional evidence, neither situation can be fully understood from an employment percentage alone.

As longer lives reshape economies, measuring success will require a more complete picture of what happens during the years before retirement. That means looking beyond averages to understand who finds work, who leaves, who wants to return, who cannot—and whose valuable contributions remain outside the traditional definition of employment. The real question is not simply how many people are working after 55. It is whether the opportunities and choices available to them reflect the longer, more varied lives people are now living.