Labour Market Figures Mask Impact on Older Workers

UK labour market figures released recently by the Office for National Statistics reveal that the only age category to see an increase in long-term unemployment has been the 50+ group.
A rise of 21,000 in the three months to December took the total figure of over-50s who have been out of work for over 12 months to 189,000, a percentage rise of 12.2 over the previous three months.
Disappointingly, the overall number of older job seekers (50-64 years) increased again, by 16,000 (3.8 per cent), resulting in a disquieting set of statistics for older members of the workforce. 
The reverse side of the coin is that the number of people aged over 65 in employment also rose again, by 26,000 in the three months to December, although many of these are thought to be part-time workers. 
This is a 3.1 per cent rise on the last quarter, which seems to indicate that an increasing number of older people are choosing to delay their retirement as they face the reality of their pension annuities plummeting and truncated interest rates. 
Callum Chomczuk, Age Scotland's Senior Parliamentary and Policy Officer, said: "The job market is currently turbulent for all age groups, but it is extremely disappointing that recent figures reveal a large jump in the number of long-term unemployed older workers. Their plight appears to be getting lost amid ongoing news about youth unemployment and government programmes specifically aimed at helping younger people.
"Despite recent changes in the law, such as the scrapping of the default retirement age, it is clear there are still significant barriers in place for older, unemployed adults actively seeking to re-enter the labour market. One implication is that the existing difficulties of the older job seeker are being compounded by financial incentives encouraging providers to concentrate on easier and cheaper targets.
"By dismissing older workers as being on the employment "scrap heap" or being unsuitable for positions due to their age, employers are missing out on a raft of skills and experience that can significantly benefit their business as well as the economy as a whole."
The outlook for all jobseekers is likely to remain grim in light of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's report published last week, which highlights that nearly one in four private sector employers are intending to make redundancies during the first quarter of 2012.
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