Writing people aged over-50 off in the jobs market is absurd - Andrew Vine
Hers is a voice that resonates far beyond the boundaries of our county as she makes a compelling case for the value older people bring to the workplace at a time when so many are being thrown onto the scrapheap by short-sighted employers.
As she set out in The Yorkshire Post last week, far from being past their best, over-50s are in their prime and the country is frittering away a precious resource by not making use of their skills.
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Hide AdIt is a message that the government should be promoting, especially at a time when it is trying to reduce the number of economically-inactive people.


Sadly, there are among them a lot of frustrated – and even angry - older workers who are inactive not by choice, but because they are victims of a silent prejudice on the grounds of age.
Once out of the workforce, they find it impossible to get back in because of this invisible barrier.
They are nowhere near retiring and could not afford to do so even if they wished, but are being made to feel useless when the country is crying out for skilled and conscientious employees in any number of sectors.
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Hide AdThey want and need to work, but are being denied the opportunity.
The bias against over-50s in too many workplaces is a disgrace in a society that puts a premium on equality for all, enshrining its importance in legislation and heaping disapproval on those who do not embrace the principle that everyone should have the same opportunities.
Yet every day, in companies large and small, and the public sector as well, doors are being quietly shut in people’s faces because of their age.
They can have impeccable qualifications, vast experience, be highly-motivated, great team-players or capable of being trusted to work on their own initiative, and yet letters of application go unanswered.
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This is shameful discrimination, done slyly, and it mostly goes unchallenged even though it is illegal. It is insidious and largely impossible to prove before an employment tribunal, but exists all the same.
Where once it was the over-60s who were seen as too old, now it’s the over-50s. The age barrier to getting a job is constantly being lowered. Unless this trend is reversed, how long will it be before we reach the absurd point where you’re regarded as over the hill at 45?
All of us who have waved farewell to our 50th birthday resent being reduced to a series of cliches – too old, too inflexible, unable to learn new skills, will struggle with IT. It’s insulting rubbish.
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Hide AdYet these stereotypes persist, and may even be perpetuated by the increasing use of artificial intelligence in screening job applications and deciding who is invited for interview.
I’d bet it’s only a matter of time before something leaks to the media about a well-known company weeding applicants out on the grounds of age because that’s the way the AI has been set up.
There needs to be a push back against age discrimination both by the government and the business world.
Whatever political standpoint you hold, there is generalised agreement on the need to get Britain’s economy growing and its workforce more productive. Neither can be achieved if the skills of a substantial cohort of that workforce are being junked.
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Hide AdWhat Ms Tomlinson has to say ought to resonate at the highest level, because the Prime Minister, at 62, is a rebuttal of the notion that the over-50s can’t take on new challenges.
Whether one agrees with Sir Keir Starmer’s politics and policies or not, there is no question that he is intellectually at the top of his game, has bags of energy and more than capable of handling the stress that inevitably comes with running the country and responding to international crises.
Yet exact contemporaries of Sir Keir who are also at the top of their game can’t get through the door for the chance of impressing at an interview.
The last government, to its credit, attempted to tackle this with both the former Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride singing the praises of older workers and especially trying to persuade those who had lost jobs during the Covid pandemic back into employment.
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Hide AdTheir efforts came to nothing, but it is an approach the current government ought to adopt. Some enlightened employers – most visibly in the retail sector – actively recruit over 50s, but more needs to be done to encourage others to follow suit.
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