UK’s Ageing Workforce Will Decide Our Future After Brexit
Here are some numbers for you to conjure with. In the 10 years to 2022, some 12.5 million jobs will be opened up in the UK through people leaving the workforce, mostly through retirement or ill-health. Over the same period an estimated two million new jobs will be created, given a fair economic wind. Yet based on the number of young people reaching adulthood, just seven million will enter the workforce. Even allowing for the vagaries of economic forecasting, it is clear that we have a problem.
The UK population is becoming older. This is not something that will affect us in the distant future, but is happening right now. We have entered a period, likely to last for many years, when more people will be retiring than are old enough to begin full-time work. By delaying the retirement age, we begin to address this issue, but it is only a start. For example, it does not even come close to compensating for the steep fall in full-time employment that affects the over 50s. There are some three million people out of work aged between 50 and the state pension age. Poor health is a significant factor for this, but so too are recruitment policies that discriminate against older men and women, regardless of skills and experience.
Full Content: Huffington Post
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