Unemployment among over 50s

Responding to newspaper reports today that Welsh jobseekers aged 50 and over are five times more likely to be unemployed for over a year than 18-24-year-old jobseekers, Victoria Lloyd, Director of Influencing and Programme Development at  Age Cymru says:

  
“These figures come as no surprise and support our belief  that age discrimination in employment is widespread.

“In fact, a survey we carried out last year showed that 71 per cent of people in Wales believed older people were discriminated against on the grounds of their age.

“The poll also revealed that 1 in 5 people aged between 50 and 64 believed they themselves had been discriminated against in employment because of their age.

“With our ageing population – 1 in 4 Welsh adults are currently aged 65 or over, and in 20 years time 1 in 3 Welsh adults will be aged 65 or over, and with us all being encouraged to extend our working lives, something clearly has to change.      

“Part of this change must involve older workers being given the same access to training opportunities and support to find employment as their younger counterparts.  

“Older workers have a huge amount to offer employers and concerns over a person’s ability to fulfill the requirements of a role need to be dealt with by competency criteria rather than outdated ideas about chronological age.”