A recent report has found that 52% of surveyed job seekers over the age of 50 believed their age made employers less likely to hire them. The survey found that employers are less likely to invite them to interview or hire those over 50 based on perceptions that they were too overqualified, too close to retirement age, more expensive to hire or a perceived or actual generational skills gap. The percentage of people who felt their age put them at a disadvantage in securing a new role increased from 46% of those aged between 50 and 59 to 64% for those between 60 and 69. The survey was conducted by Legal and General Retail Retirement and the Centre for Economics and Business Research and 2,000 over 50s took part.
As well as this, the latest Office for National Statistics figures suggest that up to 800,000 people were on the furlough scheme when it closed on 30 September 2021, of whom more than 500,000 were aged over 50. Although peak unemployment levels are expected to be lower than was expected at the start of the pandemic, many businesses are still expecting redundancies following the end of the furlough scheme and older workers seem likely to be more severely impacted.
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