Introduction

There has been a substantial increase in research dealing with the various forms of what has been termed ‘precarious employment’ (Arnold and Bongiovi, 2013; Campbell and Price, 2016; Kalleberg, 2018; Prosser, 2016; Vosko, 2010). Guy Standing's book The Precariat (2011) drew attention to what he saw as the precarious employment situation of older people (among other population groups), arguing that inadequate pension provision had led many to take new insecure jobs in later life. Standing conceptualized precarity as a labour outcome, related to individuals being in precarious employment, rather than older workers feeling precarious in a psychological sense. He argued (2011, p 59) that while some may be dissatisfied with being in precarious jobs (so-called ‘groaners’), others might be perfectly happy with this situation (‘grinners’).

This chapter contributes to debates on precarity among older workers in two ways. First, it develops the concept of ‘ontological precarity’ as a means of describing the individual experience of anxiety arising from the everyday experience of precarious work. This builds on the work of scholars such as Millar (2017) and Worth (2016), who focus on precarity as a lived experience rather than solely as a labour outcome. Second, it develops a new theoretical framework for understanding ontological precarity, which extends the scope of enquiry beyond individuals’ labour market position in order to take account of their broader circumstances (Campbell and Burgess, 2018).

We argue that for a significant proportion of older workers, the financial pressure to work for longer, combined with limited alternative employment prospects, gives rise to a heightened sense of precarity. To understand this, it is crucial to locate older workers’ experiences of precarity within the context of a shifting ‘welfare state’ landscape; this includes rising State Pension ages and attempts to extend working lives (Grenier et al, 2017; Lain and Loretto, 2016). It is also important to take into account the fact that pressures to work longer are related to a decline in the financial support within households, a key change in recent years being the rise in the number of older people living alone (Office for National Statistics, 2017).

The theoretical model presented in this chapter identifies three intersecting ‘domains’ of precarity: precarious employment, precarious welfare states and precarious households. We suggest that older workers’ sense of ontological precarity stems from feeling ‘trapped’ by the varying interactions of precarity in these three domains.

Data in Chapter Two: the UK Labour Force Survey and US Current Population Survey

In Chapter Two, we present data on the incomes of people over 65 in the UK and US from an analysis by the author of the UK Labour Force Survey and the US Current Population Survey (see Figures 5.2 and 5.3). The surveys were selected because of their detailed information about the incomes of older people. The surveys analysed were harmonised by the author as part of his earlier PhD research (see Lain, 2009). The author replicated the variables used in the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) in order to ensure that they were comparable across countries (for more on the LIS, see Atkinson, 2004). These variables were then adapted slightly to ensure that the full range of means-tested benefits were categorised as such (see Lain, 2009).

Data in Part Two: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the US Health and Retirement Study

In Part Two of the book (Chapters Four to Six), the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were analysed. These surveys interview people in their 50s upwards, alongside their partners, on a biannual basis. ELSA was designed in conjunction with those working on HRS, and consequently the surveys have a high degree of comparability in terms of the variables constructed (see Banks et al, 2006). We used comparable data files created by the RAND organisation (for the HRS data) and the Gateway to Global Aging Data (for ELSA) (see Phillips et al, 2014; Chien et al, 2014). Please see the acknowledgements section for more details on the parters involved in creating and funding the data.

The analysis in Part Two focuses primarily on those aged 65–74, although the survey year analysed varies slightly depending upon what is most appropriate. In Chapter Four, we examine the pathways that people take to employment at 65+ and focus on those aged 65–74 in 2012. For that chapter, we also draw on data for these individuals going back to 2002, the year that ELSA started. In Chapters Five and Six, most of the analysis examines those aged 65–74 in 2010; this is because we have a more complete selection of variables related to wealth and financial position in 2010 (Phillips et al, 2014).