Do employers do enough to give older workers a chance? Stephen Lambert says ageism is alive and well in the North-East

ALTHOUGH UNEMPLOYMENT has fallen again across the region with more people in full-time and part-time paid work, one group that has been consistently over-looked is the Over-50s.

True, most men and women in this age cohort are in paid jobs in the North-East with a significant minority of middle-class professionals having opted for a four day week. A small number have retired early on ‘good’ public sector pensions with mortgages they have paid off.

Yet, the stark reality is that thousands remain "economically inactive and excluded from the labour market in the North-East", while more than one million people aged 50 to 65 in England say they would be delighted to take a job if offered one.

In Newcastle about 1,000 50 to 64-year-olds claim job seekers allowance and thousands more have been "parked’’ on disability benefits. These are the "hidden unemployed"... a growing minority of the over-50s who have been made redundant and can't find a way back into work. They often suffer ill-health, are burn out and have suffered enforced early retirement.

Pre-retirement worklessness is a social class and gender-related phenomena. Most are former working-class, blue collar workers living in the most de-industrialised neighbourhoods across the region. Thousands are the victims of globalisation and automation which has caused long-term unemployment leaving them consigned to the economic scrap heap. They are disconnected from economic opportunities, even though some live near major employment, development sites and retail parks.

Large numbers of older men and women live in communities which have high rates of poverty, unemployment, low skill sets, physical or mental ill-health and few qualifications.

Most 55-year-olds left school at 16. They’re less likely to be equipped to compete in a digital, fast paced job market which favours IT-savvy young adults. Competition for unskilled jobs is fierce. In the North-East, more than 170 applicants for a couple of jobs is not uncommon.

Research done by Nick Drydakis of Anglia University reveals that women over 50 are 25 times less likely to be offered a job interview than their peers in their late 20s. Overall, the younger candidates were four times more likely to be given an interview. Younger men were three times more likely to get an interview than their older peers over 50 while among women the gap was five times. Age-based discrimination is rife across the region.

The Carnegie Third Age Programme, which champions older people, notes that campaigns against ageism are having some impact. Although some companies use subtle techniques of employee recruitment for the under-45s, progressive employers have policies in place that fly in the face of age-based discrimination. High street giants like M&S and outdoor retailers like B&Q adopted schemes 20 years ago to help applicants over 50. Today all B&Q stores have a proportion of older workers. They are less likely to take time off and are just a productive as younger workers.

Although the Government’s Department for Work and Pensions has produced information to encourage bosses to keep, recruit and retrain older workers, stubborn ageist attitudes still persist. The last administration’s New Deal 50+ has been abandoned, the Princes’ Trust project to support business start-ups has withered on the vine, while opportunities, other than volunteering, remain scarce.

Although local town halls, like Newcastle and North Tyneside, have signed up to a ‘Community Led Local Development’ (CLLD) programme pre-Brexit funded by the EU to narrow the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged, more needs to be done by government to address the needs of this post-50 cohort. The Government’s decision to appoint an older workers tsar is a step in the right direction. Central Government needs to re-prioritise adult skills and education to improve the ‘life-chances of the ‘left behinds’.

Adult education has been starved of resources. Opportunities for adults over 50 to update their skills have been cut to the bone. Yet, these are the things that could help the older worker to get back onto the jobs ladder.

It's premature to write off these people. Many have had decades of valuable work and life experience. Some possess useful transferable skills without knowing it. But because of employer prejudice they don’t stand a chance in a 21st century competitive labour market market.

Older workers are offered some protection under the age component of the Equality Act, but too many bosses avoid their legal duties. If we’re serious about creating an age diverse workplace business, college and civic leaders need to re-emphasise the value of older workers.

  • Stephen Lambert is a Newcastle City Councillor