Employment figures

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics confirm what we have been hearing from other Western countries, namely, that the current recession is hitting younger people more so than older people. Employment is up overall in the last year by 0.1% for the fifty pluses to SRA, and up 3.6% for those over SRA. The biggest increase is from women in employment. For the over 50's it was 0.2% and for post SRA 5.8%. For men it was a fall of 0.1% for the 50+'s and 0% for post SRA. The 18-24 shows a decrease of 4.6%. This is not to take away from the concern currently being reported by Age Concern and Help the Aged by older people worrying, with much justification, about future employment prospects of any kind. This simply means that the predicted impact of the recession on older workers has not been anywhere near so dramatic as some have predicted.