The latest unemployment figures show that the number of over 65s in work has risen by 52,000 to reach 929,000, the highest number since records began in 1992. Yet in the same period, youth unemployment has fallen by just 10,000. (It is now 21.9%, meaning over 1 in 5 under 24s is jobless.) In response to the news, commentators have warned of “ageing workplaces” if the government fails to act on the growing inter-generational imbalance in the labour market.
The figures concern Graduate Fog because the numbers show that the young are continuing to be hit the hardest by the economic climate – and are struggling to find a place for themselves in the world of work. They are already in tens of thousands of pounds of debt after studying for a degree they were told would guarantee them a well-paid graduate job (but which probably hasn’t materialised). For many of today’s young people, the dream of owning their own home or having a family is distant, or even impossible.
Meanwhile, those of retirement age appear to be clinging to their place in the workforce – or re-entering it when they discover their pension is not sufficient to fund their twilight years. But if older workers refuse to retire, shouldn’t younger people be concerned that – directly or indirectly – there will be less work available for them?
Graduate Fog has written before about what appears to be a growing generational conflict in the fight for paid work – and some of our readers feel it is unfair. But something about all this feels very wrong to us. While the young struggle to find work paying more than the minimum wage, the old – sitting on much of the country’s wealth in homes they bought for pennies but are now worth hundreds of thousands (if not millions) – are still refusing to bow out of the job market and make do with what they’ve got…
via Unemployment falls! (For the over 65s…) | Graduate Fog.
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