A Note on the Composition of the Working Population

Published date01 November 1960
Date01 November 1960
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1960.tb00140.x
RECENT ECONOMIC TRENDS
153
A
NOTE
ON
THE COMPOSITION
OF
THE WORKING POPULATION
I
IN
the last half century the working population has maintained a
remarkably stable ratio to total population. The Census figures for
England and Wales show
a
rise from 45.2 per cent. in 1911 to 46.5
per cent. in 1951. For men alone the change was from 66 to 67 per
cent. and for women alone from 26 to 28 per cent. The stability of
these figures conceals, however, the operation of diverse factors-
changes in age distribution, in the retirement habits of old people, in
the proportion
of
single and married women in different age groups,
and in the proportion of mamed women at work. This note considers
the operation of these factors in relation to the Census returns
of
1911, 1931 and 1951, and the trends of the last few years. Census
figures are given for England and Wales rather than Great Britain
because the Census returns are separate for England and Wales and
Scotland, and the former is the larger partner.
For the male population the major factors over the forty years
between 1911 and 1951 were the declining proportion of young
people below working age, and the growing proportion
of
the elderly
(Table
I).
In 1911 63 per cent. of the male population were in the
15
to 65 age group.
By
1931 the declining number of young people had
more than offset the growing proportion of the elderly, and the popula-
tion in the working age groups grew
to
68 per cent. In 1951 it fell
again slightly to 67 per cent. with a continuing increase in the older
age group. Changes in age distribution were therefore responsible
for moving another
5
per cent. of the total population into the work-
ing age groups between 1911 and 1931, and for a 4 per cent. shift
between 1911 and 1951.
In 1911 the school leaving age was 10, in 1931 it was 14, and in
1951
it was
15.
The lower school leaving ages in the earlier years
had a diminished effect because quite high proportions of children
below 15 were not actually working. Thus, though there were
1,748,000 bogs between
10
and 15 in
1911,
the working population
was only enhanced by 320,000 of them, or less than 2 per cent. of
total population. Slightly more than half of the bogs between
14
and
15 in 1931 were at work
(1
per cent. of total population). The num-
bers of full time students between 15 and 65 and those returned as

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