Joblessness among the over-50s rose by 14,000 to 398,000 in the three months to January, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
This is on the official unemployment count. The official count includes only those out of work who are claiming Jobseekers Allowance, making it fairly inaccurate for both younger and older workers. Younger workers disappear off the figures if they go back into education, while older workers stop being counted if they go onto health-related benefits – which many more over 50s are on than Jobseekers Allowance.
Nonetheless the official figures do provide an indication of whether the trend in unemployment is up or down. The trend now is still bad for the over 50s.
According to PRIME’s Peter Bennie, quoted in The Times, “It used to be that around 14 per cent of Jobseekers Allowance claimants were over 50. But in some towns and cities that figure is now at 35 or 36 per cent.”
The Times also talked to James O’Grady, 53, who lost his sales job last year and has just gone self-employed. And it talked to a younger jobseeker, an 18-year-old now on an apprentice scheme.
Full Times article on Age barriers to getting a job
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