- When everyone is obsessed about diversity, age diversity hardly gets a look-in
- By 2039, nearly half of the UK’s workforce will be over 45
- Over past 20 years, number of workers over 50 has nearly doubled to 10.7m
In the hit movie The Intern, Robert De Niro plays the role of Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower and retired marketing executive.
Ben decides retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be so he applies to be a senior intern at About The Fit, a trendy online fashion start-up in Brooklyn, run by the workaholic CEO Jules Ostin, played by Anne Hathaway.
His cheeky charm and wise ways soon win over the sceptical staff. And before you know it, he’s transformed Ostin’s frenetic work schedule and saved her marriage.
As this is Hollywood, there are morals to be drawn. Trying to find a new job, whether you are elderly or retired, is tough so colleagues should be careful not to stereotype.
More pertinently, workplaces benefit from having people of different generations working alongside each other.
Cheeky charm and wise ways: In The Intern, Robert De Niro’s character decides retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be
Employers – and workers – could do well to learn from these lessons if we are to crack the crisis bedevilling our labour market. Since the pandemic, there are around one million or so ‘missing workers’, while the number of those who are ‘economically inactive’ due to ill-heath and disability has sky-rocketed to 2.8m.
Yet there are about 1.7m people – many in the 50-plus age bracket – who would love to work. But many feel unable to do so, either because they lack the skills or, indeed, the confidence of the Bens of this world.
If you are over 50, you are two-and-a-half times as likely as younger age groups to be out of work for at least two years. What will get them back in the saddle? For starters, they should try channelling their inner De Niro.
Lucy Standing, chartered psych-ologist, encourages people to use more unconventional ways of finding work in a recruitment market she claims is broken.
In a concept known as ‘sweat equity’, she says people should offer to work for free – or, in rare cases, even pay for the experience of shadowing an expert. In return for investing time, they get job titles and a chance to learn something new.
It’s a concept that Standing champions at Brave Starts, the not-for profit networking group which she runs, mentoring about 540 midlife professionals from doctors to carpenters who want to change their lives.
Some retrain or start their own business: ‘I’ve had engineers who dream of running a B&B in the Lakes, for example. So I encourage them to do that for a week or two. Most are disillusioned. But it works as a wake-up call.’ Conventional recruitment doesn’t do any of this and the industry is ripe for disruption. In fact, most recruiters are so rude they don’t respond to applicants – another reason why those seeking work are so despondent.
What’s ironic is that in an age when everyone is obsessed about diversity, age diversity hardly gets a look-in. Which is bizarre, as the one thing we can all be sure about – apart from death and taxes – is getting old.
Yet enticing older people back to work is essential for their well-being but also the country’s wealth. By 2039, nearly half of the UK’s workforce will be over 45.
Over the past 20 years, the number of working people aged above 50 has nearly doubled to 10.7m – nearly a third of the entire working population.
Which is why it’s so surprising that Labour – which claims to be the most worker-friendly in generations – has not dared to even mention this ticking time-bomb. It’s not such a problem as it seems. As The Intern’s advertising poster declared, Experience Never Gets Old.
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
AJ Bell
AJ Bell
Easy investing and ready-made portfolios
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown
Free fund dealing and investment ideas
interactive investor
interactive investor
Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month
eToro
eToro
Share investing: 30+ million community
Trading 212
Trading 212
Free share dealing and no account fee
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.
Compare the best investing account for you
