Are the 50-plus recession proof – part 2?

The Sunday Telegraph had an article titled: “Keeping up with the Joneses”. I have to admit to an interest in this piece since I was interviewed by the journalist. My 20 mins on the phone distilled to about 3 lines of text and didn’t represent exactly what I said but that is the way of things.

The main thrust of the article, one I have not seen before, is that the US has much more positive attitude to ageing in the workplace than the UK. Now I come to think about it I instinctively think that is true.

The UK is portrayed as a place where reaching the age of 50 (in truth it is much younger than that) is a bit like catching the Black Death. This is certainly true in ‘management’ jobs but is probably becoming less pronounced in retail and lower grade clerical roles. As I discussed in it is not all rosy getting old the numbers about 50-plus employment are far from clear.

I suspect that we will increasingly see older people in the workplace. Not because of the government legislation, not because the CSR policies of companies but become it is becoming so difficult recruiting employable younger workers. Dick Stroud