Reviving Britain's Economy Is Tough With an Aging Workforce

The United Kingdom is in dire economic straits, with a looming recession and other challenges adding urgency to the need to address a rapidly aging workforce, reports Bloomberg . "The combination of an aging workforce in some sectors and the potential changes to worker availability and migration rules, essentially is coming together with this huge increase in unemployment," said Learning and Work Institute CEO Stephen Evans. "If we invest now, we can improve them together." For example, truck drivers are about 57 years old on average, yet they transport 98 percent of goods in Britain, according to the Road Haulage Association. A lack of people able or willing to spend a large amount to qualify for a truck-driving license means up to 60 percent of haulers on U.K. roads are from continental Europe. Moreover, COVID-19 has forced the U.K. government to change rules that require heavy-goods vehicle drivers over 65 to undergo an annual medical. Further, economic reliance on still-employed over-65s without a stream of new employees is unwise. Worsening the situation is younger workers' shifting views and skillsets due to successive governments prioritizing higher education over vocational qualifications.