The over 65s for marketing

Just to reiterate a couple of points made in the Observer newspaper yesterday.

Will Hutton's piece about the most dynamic part of the labour market is the growth in employment of the over 65s with 104,000 of the 218,000 job growth going to the over 65s, much of this part-time.This may suggest that employers are still wanting to reap the benefits of the skills and experience of older workers and are prepared to offer flexible options to enable them to do this. As Will says, this will accelerate from April when there is no requirement to leave work at 65.

The there is Andrew Clark's comment about the annual spending in the UK of households which include someone over 65, which passed the £1bn mark in 2009.

This might suggest where the potential growth in our economy could be for businesses if you put these 2 points together,an increase in the number of peope working beyond 65 ie being economically active, and the spending power of people in their mid-60s- mid 70s (who spend a higher proportion of their budget on food and drink, housing, furniture and recreation, per Saga research). However, the 65-75 age group doesn't tend to be where most marketers focus.