The London Market Group has raised concern over the ageing workforce in the city, calling the demographic shift an industry-wide problem.
The United Kingdom’s demography is shifting older as people are having fewer children and working until later in life.
One third of people currently working in the UK are over 50, and the median age in the country has risen from 34 to 41 in the last five decades.
This countrywide phenomenon is having an effect on industries in the capital, too. The London Market Group, which is the trade body for the reinsurance industry in the city, has also noted with concern the increasing average age of its workforce.
Employing a total of 61,000 people, 67% of whom are based in London, the London reinsurance market is expected to require 82,200 full-time employees by the end of 2034.
However, the average age of reinsurance employees is expected to increase to 46 years old by that time.
The ageing of the reinsurance workforce is not being met with sufficient hiring, the London Market Group said. It noted that instead of increasing graduate positions to bring younger people into the workforce, the number of graduate job listings has actually fallen in recent months.
“The age profile of the London Market is estimated to shift significantly over the next ten years,” said London Market Group CEO Caroline Wagstaff.
“This is most dramatic in the under 30s, whose share of the total workforce is predicted to fall from 24% to 7% in that period.”
“Even as the debate continues around the potential for AI and other systemic shifts in the way we work and the skills we need, this potential imbalance in our market demographic should ring alarm bells,” she said.
Wagstaff noted that to support the industry’s growth, an influx of graduates and entry-level workers was critical.
“Graduate and entry level employment needs to increase to meet demand in the next decade, but this is not being reflected in current hiring,” she said.
“In fact, graduate job postings in insurance fell 18% YoY in September 2025. This is an industry-wide problem that needs industry-wide attention.”
Youth unemployment rises as job openings fall
Concerns from the insurance market come as youth unemployment is rising in London, even as unemployment for older adults is staying relatively flat.
Analysis conducted at the end of 2025 by Trust for London found that youth unemployment was rising in a way that bucks historical trends.
It noted that there was a shrinking market for entry-level jobs, and there was an especially significant decline in job listings in London.
“From data like that collected by the ONS, we know the type of jobs that young Londoners and young people are more likely to work in. In almost every case, these jobs have seen the biggest drop in vacancies,” Trust for London said.
“Taken together, there are now far fewer jobs than three years ago — especially in the sectors young Londoners rely on.”
This rising youth unemployment coincides with the rise of AI and its potential effect on the job market, with some predicting that the technology could replace half of all jobs in the coming years.
While it is unclear whether AI has led directly to the decline in entry-level jobs, the positions most severely affected are those which can be best addressed by AI, and more hands-on jobs are not seeing the same degree of decline as white-collar office jobs.
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