Business leaders expected more out of the Budget 2012 to help them create jobs and curb youth unemployment. They were left disappointed.

The biggest recruitment barrier that employers faced during the last 12 months was the poor quality of candidates, a new survey reveals. According to the XpertHR 

New statistics published today by the Office for National Statistics reveal that that people are working longer than they used to. The average age at which people leave the labour market – a proxy for average age of retirement – rose from 63.8 years to 64.6 years for men and from 61.2 years to 62.3 years for women between 2004 and 2010. This average summarises information about the ages at which people stop working, which  differ for different people. For men, the peak ages for leaving the labour market are 64 to 66 years. For women, the peak ages are…

Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that age-related discrimination and stereotyping remain rooted in British society. The findings are based on new analysis from the ONS Opinions Survey. The report looks at the factors that are associated with age discrimination and prejudice and compares attitudes between two key groups, people in their 20s and people aged 70 and over. Key findings are: On average, respondents thought that ‘youth’ ends at 41 and that 'old age' begins at 59. However this varied by as much as twenty years in relation to the age of the respondent.…

Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that age-related discrimination and stereotyping remain rooted in British society. The findings are based on new analysis from the ONS Opinions Survey. The report looks at the factors that are associated with age discrimination and prejudice and compares attitudes between two key groups, people in their 20s and people aged 70 and over. Key findings are: On average, respondents thought that ‘youth’ ends at 41 and that 'old age' begins at 59. However this varied by as much as twenty years in relation to the age of the respondent.…

More than 100 major UK businesses have signed up to a government initiative that proposes asking for CVs without the name or the school details of candidates in order to remove the risk of discrimination during the applicati

Researchers from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex have published a paper examining the occupational mobility of employed and unemployed jobseekers. Economic theory suggests that job mobility within the same occupation leads to increased wages, due to the value of experience gained by an employee. Changing occupation, however, often leads to decreased wages because of the loss of occupational experience on the part of the job-seeker.  Therefore, unemployed jobseekers may be forced to accept lower wages in order to get a job. The authors analysed data from the Labour Force Survey between 2001 and…

A new report from the ILC (International Longevity Centre) on older entrepreneurs has found that redundancy from a previous role was the single biggest trigger for people aged over 55 setting up their own businesses. Other events such as the take-over of the company where the individual previously worked in a senior position, or retirement or early retirement, were common too. The report is based on survey responses from nearly 1500 entrepreneurs, over a third of whom (558) were people aged over 55 running their own businesses. For the vast majority of respondees, their first foray into the field of…

Permanent staff placements have decreased for the second month running and are falling at the quickest rate since 2009, a report has found, contrasting with more positive job-market data released earlier this week. The late

 According to the 2011 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), the gender pay gap in the UK has fallen below 10 per cent for the first time, however the gap remained widest between men and women aged 50-59.  The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the overall the gap between men’s and women’s median full-time hourly earnings (excluding overtime) dropped by 1 per cent in the year to April 2011 to 9.1 per cent. The fall was a result of women’s earnings growing faster than men’s. Men’s earnings rose by 0.8 per cent over the…

The number of older employees receiving job-related training fell in the three months to September.  According to the latest Labour Force Survey, 585,000 people aged 50-64 received such training between July and September, a decrease of 72,000 on the previous three months, although the number was up by 21,000 (3.8 per cent) on the same period in 2010.  The drop was part of a general fall which saw just under 3.1 million employees aged 16-64 receive such training compared with 3.34 million in the three months to June. In most age groups, female employees were more likely to receive job-related…

More state employees should work from home to save the taxpayer billions of pounds in office rent, according to a report backed by Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary.

When it comes to employee loyalty, workers aged 55 and over are least likely to be hunting for another job according to the latest Employee Outlook Survey from the CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development). The online survey of nearly 2,100 employees in private, public and voluntary organisations was conducted last month.  It found that overall, over one fifth (22 per cent) of respondents were looking for a new job with a different employer.  Respondees working in the voluntary sector were most likely to be job hunting (38 per cent), compared with 25 per cent of those in the…

The number of age discrimination claims received by the Employment Tribunal Service fell in the first three months (April-June) of 2011/12. The ETS received 880 age claims during this period, a drop of 41 per cent compared with the same three months in the previous year.  However, compared with the last three months of 2010/11, the number of claims was up by almost 16 per cent. In terms of disposals (cases dealt with), 1,200 age claims were processed during April-June 2011.  Of those: Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) were withdrawn Acas managed to conciliate the claims in almost a…

Skills shortages threaten to hold back growth in the UK's creative industries - a key driver of the economic recovery, according to a leading business group.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published research which explores the recruitment practices of employers in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular how these relate to disabled people. The research comprised 60 interviews, two interviews each with 30 employers, across a range of sectors. Employers were interviewed immediately before and after having recruited for a genuine vacancy, enabling them to situate their experiences of and attitudes to disabled people in a meaningful context. Key findings from the research: The principle concern of SME employers was to find someone who they perceived could ‘do the job’ to ensure their…

The average compensation awarded in successful age discrimination cases nearly trebled in 2010-11 according to the Employment Tribunal Service. The average compensation awarded went up from £10,931 in the period from 1t April 2009 to 31t March 2010 to £30,289 over the same period in 2010-11.  The average award in age cases was higher than for any of the other discrimination strands. The highest award in an age discrimination case rose from £48,710 in 2009-10 to £144,100 in 2010-11 and the median award went up from £5,868 in the previous year to £12,697 in this.   However, while the number of…

New research published by the Department for Work and Pensions examines the experience of unemployment for older jobseekers. Unemployed people over 50 face particular challenges in the labour market. They generally take longer to get back to work and are at greater risk of drifting into long-term unemployment or prolonged economic inactivity. In depth interviews were conducted with 60 Jobseeker's Allowance claimants aged 50-64. The research suggests that older newly redundant claimants have a number of key barriers to work that stem from having long work histories e.g. the lack of a CV, lack of job application experience and lack of…

It is a mistake to blame the increase in the number of older people  who are working  for the rise in youth unemployment, according to Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the TUC.  Mr Barber was commenting on the TUC’s study Age and Gender: What has changed in the labour market which that shows a growth in the proportion of people aged 50 to 64 and those aged over 65 in work between April 1992 and December 2010. He said: 'It is a mistake to blame older workers for youth unemployment - they tend not to be doing the jobs…

Employers should pay greater focus to the training and performance management of older workers or face falling foul of the law when the default retirement age (DRA) is phased out, says the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (