TAEN – The Age and Employment Network – response to today’s labour market statistics

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Commenting on labour market figures released today (Wednesday 15 February 2012) by the Office for National Statistics, Chris Ball, Chief Executive of TAEN – The Age and Employment Network, says:

“The plight of the long-term unemployed older worker is being lost in the continuing news about youth unemployment and government programmes to help younger people.

“Most alarmingly today’s (15 February) figures show that the only age category to see an increase in long-term unemployment is the 50+ group. A rise of 21,000 in the three months to December takes the total figure  of over 50’s 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 we have also seen the overall number of older job seekers (50-64 years) increase again by 16,000 (3.8 per cent).

“This is a disquieting set of statistics especially following the National Audit Office report on the Work Programme which raises concerns that stretching performance targets might lead to providers targeting the easier to help. One implication is that the present difficulties of the older job seeker, who may face multiple barriers to finding work, could be compounded by financial incentives encouraging providers to concentrate on easier targets. 

“The outlook for all job seekers is likely to remain grim in light of the Chartered Institute for Personal Development’s report published on Monday (13 February) which highlighted that nearly one in four private sector employers are intending to make redundancies in the first three months of 2012.

“The statistics also show that the number of people aged over 65 in employment has risen again by 26,000 in the three months to December which is a 3.1 per cent rise on the last quarter, although many of these could be part-time workers. It does show however that many older people are choosing to delay their retirement as they face the reality of their pension annuities plummeting and truncated interest rates.”