Men aged 50 and over suffered badly in the previous two recessions, in the early 1980s and early 1990s. Many older workers in manufacturing industries were forced into early retirement or moved onto incapacity benefit.

Employment rates for older men have recovered since the early 1990s but they have been overtaken in the job market by women as the sexes approach the ages at which they become eligible for state pensions, currently 60 for women and 65 for men.

The employment rate for men in the five years before the male state pension age is 58.4 per cent compared with 63.9 per cent for women aged 55 to 60. The employment rate beyond pension age is also slightly higher for women at 12.3 per cent compared with 10.7 per cent for men, according to ONS.