Career swaps mean more are overqualified

The rise of midlife career swaps has led to an increasing number of middle-aged professionals who are overqualified for their jobs. Office for National Statistics data showed a record number of 35 to 49-year-olds – 18.9 per cent – are now considered to be “overeducated” for their jobs. It marks the highest number of “over-educated” people since the ONS began recording such data.

THE rise of midlife career swaps has led to an increasing number of middleaged professionals who are overqualified for their jobs.

Data published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a record number of 35 to 49-year-olds – 18.9 per cent – are considered to be “overeducated” for their jobs.

It marks the highest number of people aged in their 30s and 40s to be “over-educated” since the ONS began recording such data in 2006.

The statistics organisation defined over-educated staff as having “more education than required for their job”.

Recruitment experts and sociologists said the figures were a result of the increasing trend for this age-group to “challenge themselves in a different career sector” as well as the rising pressure on people to enrol at universities.

Six years ago, the number of overeducated 35 to 49-year-olds was 15.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the “millennial” generation appears to be faring much better. In 2017 10.9 per cent of those aged 16 to 24 and 18.6 per cent of 25 to 34-yearolds were considered over-educated.

Lou Goodman, marketing director for the UK, Ireland & Benelux at the recruitment company Monster, said: “There are a number of reasons why the latest ONS figures shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“It has become far more common that people are keen to challenge themselves in a different career sector and will be encouraged to retrain to go down a new career path.

“This has also become more commonplace due to the shifting skill sets and labour shortages in the workforce.”

Mr Goodman added: “People are no longer seeing a career change as negative but rather a challenge and something that can be used to reinvigorate their working life. Furthermore, the rise of adult education could be one of the factors why it appears that this age bracket are over-educated.”

In its quarterly Economic Review, the ONS also found that nearly one third (31 per cent) of graduates had more education than was required for the job they were doing in 2017.

The data also revealed the career sectors which were most likely to see over-educated employees. In 2017, the highest incidence was noted among graduates who completed biological sciences and agricultural and physical or environmental studies – at around 50 per cent and 40 per cent.

This compares with around 51 per cent of recent graduates in the arts and 44.4 per cent of graduates working in media and information services being overqualified for workplace roles.

Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said midlife career changes “no doubt play a part” in the record figures, but said it was unclear from the data. He added: “Nearly two decades after Tony Blair decided that 50 per cent of young people should go to university, we find large numbers of graduates in non-graduate work.

“There was never any reason to think that the British economy required half the population to have degrees. The result is we have a large and growing number of people who find themselves in jobs they could have got without racking up student debt.”

Chris Adcock, director at Reed HR, the recruitment company, added: “The time when there was a ‘job for life’ is over, and it is possible that the ‘career for life’ is going the same way.

“Of course, the kickback from restarting or shifting career might mean salary growth slows in relation to education, but factors like job satisfaction and security are also highly valued.”

‘The time when there was a job for life is over … the career for life is going the same way’