PRIME Initiative

Today’s unemployment figures released by the Office for National Statistics paint a worrying picture for those aged over 50.

In the last year (Dec 2007 to Dec 2008), as highlighted by the national media, unemployment in the UK has risen from 1.6m to 1.97m - an increase of 370,000 people.

This increase is made up of 296,000 under 50s and 74,000 over 50s. What’s particularly worrying for the over 50s is that the increase is 31.5 per cent, against just 21.6 per cent for younger working-age people.

This now means that of all unemployed people, the number aged over 50 now represents 15.5 per cent of the total, as against 14.5 per cent a year ago. What’s more, once on Jobseekers Allowance, younger people tend to get back into work quicker than the over 50s, resulting in a higher proportion of older people becoming long-term unemployed.

It’s interesting to note that employment figures have seen an increase of 86,000 from those who are of pension age, 50,000 of whom are women. Is this an indication that more older people want to, and are capable of, work beyond our current State Pensions ages? Or is it through necessity, with devalued pension funds, badly performing savings, and inadequate State Pensions?

Nationally, around 20 per cent of working over 50s are self-employed, and benefit from better business survival rates than younger people, mainly through life experience and better planning & research.

So this can sometimes be a solution to continuing to work in today’s economic climate, and achieving the flexibility to fit around other commitments.