Week Starting 29th December

New Year, New Job ?

For older workers who are looking for a new job in the New Year, the prospects of employment have improved somewhat, although they are still not as good as for younger workers.

The Government rightly claims it has reversed a 30 year decline in the number of older workers in work. About two thirds of the increase of over 50s in work is down to the demographic shift in the age of the population, however on top of this some 400,000 additional jobs have been taken by over 50s.since 1997. Indeed the employment rate for older workers has been increasing, whilst that for 25-49 year olds has been standing still. The overall level of employment has been at record levels even though the economy has been sluggish. Faced with skills shortages and skills gaps, employers are having to overcome their prejudices and recruit from groups they have previously shunned and to train older existing employees. With business optimism and the UK’s economic outlook improving, these trends are likely to continue – and hopefully grow.

But before we get carried away, we should remember that the location and quality of many of the jobs that have been created and the rates of pay attached to them are far from ideal. There are still far too many employers who are ageist in their recruitment practices – so that applying for jobs can still be an extremely frustrating and demoralising experience for older workers. There are also still too few employers offering the type of flexibility that many older workers are seeking.

One of the biggest problems older workers face is knowing where to turn to for information and advice. And that's where TAEN can help...

Life Expectancy Predictions Rise

The Government Actuary Department (GAD) has released revised predictions concerning the expected increase in life expectancy. According to GAD, the next generation of children will have average life spans 4.5 years longer than those of children born last year. GAD are now predicting that the life expectancy for males born in 2031 will have risen to 81 years - an increase of 4.1 years compared to those born in 2002. The life expectancy for females born in 2031 will have increased by 4.5 years (to 84.9 years) compared to those born in 2002.

This prediction contradicts the recent headlines of a likely fall in longevity due to the fast food /couch potato lifestyles adopted by children and young adults.

The revised forecast also means that the UK’s population is now expected to be 1.2 million (nearly 2%) higher in 2031 than was previously anticipated. This will add to the pressure on the Government both to reform the state pension system and to encourage people to work longer and save for an extended period of eventual retirement - assuming the labour market can be reformed to work better for older workers.

Week starting 22nd December

Employer Training Pilots – Attracting Older Workers

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has just published the first evaluation report on the initial set of Employer Training Pilots (ETPs) and it seems the anecdotal reports are true – older workers in particular are signing up to take part in the scheme.

To remind readers, the ETPs aim to provide basic skills training and training to a first
NVQ level 2 for employees. The pilots feature combinations of paid time off work to train; wage compensation for employers; free or subsidised training; and information, advice and guidance for employers and employees. In their first year the ETPs were running in six local Learning and Skills Councils areas.

According to the report :-

• Over 3000 employers and 14,000 learners signed up to take part.
  
• 70% of the employers were small businesses employing between 1-49 employees.
  
• The typical learner on the pilots is female, aged over 50, working full-time in a small business and earning around £6 an hour.
  
• Nearly 30% of learners were aged over 46.
  
• 75% of the learners left school before 16 and most have no qualifications.
  
• 90% of learners are working towards an NVQ level 2 but nearly 10% were on basic skills courses.
  
• Employers say they are attracted to the ETPs by the free and flexibly provided training, although wage compensation can be important in some cases.
  
• Most employers saw the pilots as an opportunity to train workers who otherwise would not be trained.
  
• Learners are attracted to the pilots by the chance to obtain skills to do their jobs better and to gain qualifications.

The report concludes that in their first year the ETPs have been successful in getting substantial numbers of employers involved in training their low-skilled employees to qualifications.

In his Pre Budget Statement earlier this month the Chancellor announced an additional £190 million would be committed to extend ETPs to 18 local Learning and Skills Councils areas – which means they will cover a third of the country.

The Cost of Staff Turnover

One of the side effects of the sluggish economy is that staff turnover has fallen to its lowest level in four years. However the figure is still high and few firms bother to measure what staff turnover costs them.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in their ninth Labour Turnover survey, the average cost of losing an employee and replacing them rose from £3,462 in 2001 to £4,301 in 2002. Managers are the most expensive to lose and replace costing an average £6,807 in 2002 (up from £5,699 in 2001). Next come professional, associate professional and sales people at £5,864 (£5,408 in 2001).

Some of the other findings:-

• The average level of staff turnover was just over 16% but sectors such as hotel, catering and call centres had staff turnover of around 40% in 2002.
  
• Less than 50% of organisations try to measure what staff turnover costs them.
  
• The primary reasons for labour turnover relate to lack of career and developmental opportunities and pay
  
• The most commonly used tactic used by employers to improve retention rates is to increase learning and development opportunities.

 

Week Starting 15th December

The Labour Market Participation Of Older Workers.

Amidst a cascade of recent research reports on older workers, the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) has just published one looking at the factors which affect the labour market participation of 50-69 year olds. The factors it particularly focuses on are health, caring, income and assets, pension provision, qualifications and occupation.

The research was conducted with nearly 3000 50-69 year olds and contains a wealth of information. Amongst its key findings are :-

• The comparative ‘no-brainer’ that the proportion of those in work falls with age (72% of 50-54 year olds were in work versus only 10% of those aged 65-69).
  
• At all ages within the 50-69 year band, men are more likely to be in work than women.
  
• Amongst those not in work, 50% were not working due to ill health, 22% because they were financially secure and 12% because they were looking after other family members or home.
  
• Self-employed people work on longer than employees, with the result that 29% of those working after state pension age (SPA) are self-employed.
  
• People with higher qualifications are more likely to retire early and conversely are also more likely to work after SPA
  
• Of those on Incapacity Benefit, 75% said they didn’t expect to work again and nearly two thirds said they were not looking for, or wanting to, work again.

Record Numbers In Work, Growing Numbers of ‘Economically Inactive’

The latest set of employment figures show there are 228,000 more people in work than a year ago and at 28.17 million in total it is the highest figure since records began. Over the last quarter the number of people in work rose by 37,000 and the overall employment rate stands at 74.6%.

Vacancies remain at historically high levels – in November there were nearly 650,000 unfilled vacancies in the UK which was up by 1% on the same time last year.

The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance fell by nearly 8,000 in November to just below 918,000. The ILO unemployment figure (which includes those actively looking for work as well as those on JSA) was just under 1.5 million over the past 3 months, down by 71,000 on the same period last year.

Week Starting 8th December

TAEN Invited To Join New Equalities Commission Taskforce

TAEN is one of twenty five organisations invited to join the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) Taskforce. The Taskforce’s job will be to advise the Government on the creation of the new Commission whose own role will be to champion equality and promote equality and diversity throughout society.

The CEHR will draw together the work of the 3 existing equality commissions (the CRE, EOC and DRC) and provide support to the new groups receiving protection under equality legislation on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion & belief and age.

The Taskforce will be chaired by the DTI’s Jacqui Smith, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality.

Older Workers And The Pre-Budget Statement

‘Employment opportunities for all’ is the Government’s mantra and the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Statement announced some very small additional steps it is taking to assist older workers to either remain in, or re-enter work.

For those who are already working, the announcement that the 12 Employer Training Pilots (ETPs) underway will be extended to a further 6 Local Learning & Skills Council areas is potentially good news. Providing they happen to be in the third of the country now covered by these pilots and that their employer decides to join in on the programme which provides free, or heavily subsidised training to help low-skilled people in work gain basic skills or their first NVQ level 2 qualification. Depending on the size of the firm and which version of the pilot is being run, the scheme can also offer the employer compensation for wage costs to encourage them to allow their employees to participate. Anecdotal feedback on the existing ETPs indicate that a large percentage of the employees taking advantage of this opportunity are older workers. Hopefully this ‘up-skilling’ will improve their chances of remaining in employment.

The other measure announced was that over 60s on Pension Credit will qualify for back-to-work help from October 2004. But why only those on Pension Credit ? Women over 60 who are receiving only their basic state pension will not qualify because the basic pension is not regarded as a ‘benefit’ in DWP terms.

The Statement did not announce the end of the 6 month qualifying rule for eligibility for New Deal 50 Plus which we have been pressing for, neither did it take the opportunity to address the lack of publicly funded vocational training opportunities (including mature adult apprenticeships) and career advice available to those aged over 25 throughout their life course.

So whilst the mantra may be ‘employment opportunities for all’ – the thrust of Government policy and actions firmly remains welfare-to-work.

To read our Press release on the Statement – click here.

Average Weekly Earnings Rise, Gender Pay Gap Narrows - Slightly

According to the Office of National Statistics, the average gross weekly pay of full-time employees increased by 2.4% to £476 a week over the year from April 2002 and April 2003. It now stands above £400 a week in all regions for the first time.

The average gross annual pay of full-time employees in Great Britain rose to £25,170, whilst that for full-time women rose to £20,314 which means the gender pay gap between men and women working full-time narrowed by 1% and now stands at 18%.

Average weekly earnings for full-time women peak in the 30-39 age group at £439 (excluding overtime) whilst for full-time men it peaks in the 40-49 age group at £590 (excluding overtime)

The smallest gender pay gap was in Wales, where women earned 87.6% of male earnings, the widest was in London where it stands at 76.5% of male earnings.

Week Starting 1st December

Making Age Work For London

This week a new report was published to alert policymakers in London to the impact, consequences and opportunities presented by the changing age profile and increased longevity of its population. The Making Age Work For London report was compiled by Population Ageing Associates (a TAEN member) with TAEN itself contributing the London labour market section.

Although London is seen as a ‘young’ city, around 1.9 million of its 7.1 million inhabitants are aged over 50. They are roughly split 50/50 between those aged 50 to state pension age (SPA) and those over SPA. Whilst in percentage terms those over SPA are lower than in many other regions, numerically there are more pensioners living in London than in either Scotland, Wales or all but 3 other English regions. Some 300,000 London pensioners live below the poverty line.

London also contains 45% of the country’s total ethnic minority population and the labour market barriers faced by their over 50 year olds are substantial. Indeed, increasing polarisation within the population and between inner and outer London are some of the factors highlighted.

The report estimates there are around 250,000 people aged over 50 living in London who are not currently working but who might like to. This represents the largest untapped pool of labour available to employers and is equivalent to 7% of the present workforce.

London policymakers have been slow in responding to the challenges presented by the demographic shift and the report calls – amongst other things – for the setting up of London Regional Forum on Ageing to help focus attention and co-ordinate thinking, information gathering and influence.

The report was commissioned by the London Development Agency, Age Concern and the 3rd Sector Alliance. It can be downloaded from www.aclondon.org.uk.

Self Employment – A Practical Response To Labour Market Barriers

Over the past year some 282,000 people have become self-employed according to new figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). This was a rise of 9% and brings the total number of self-employed to 3.4 million.

Overall the biggest self-employed sector is in ‘construction’ which accounts for around 700,000 of them and the number grew by over 50,000 in the past 12 months . However, the sector which saw the largest increase has been in banking, finance and insurance – which grew by 120,000. The ONS concludes that the increase supports media stories about City job losses leading to people moving into self-employment..

This is hardly surprising as the move into self-employment is often a pragmatic and practical response from those who find it difficult to overcome the barriers facing them in the labour market. Age is one, although not the only such barrier. For instance, in the past year the number of self-employed people in professional occupations increased by 69,000 and is a reflection of the ongoing, arguably annual reorganisation/downsizing that many organisations are now locked into. We know that older workers are more likely to be made redundant than their younger

Two Anti-Discrimination Strands Come Into Effect - One To Go

This week the new regulations outlawing discrimination in employment and training on the grounds of sexual orientation and religion & belief came into effect. Signs are that many employers are unprepared for the changes and therefore potentially run the risk of running foul of the new laws. Unlike the existing anti-discrimination strands covering race, gender and disability,
the two new strands will not have dedicated Commissions established to help ensure they are effectively implemented.

This should have also been the week that we were celebrating the introduction of the regulations outlawing discrimination on the grounds of age. The EU Directive on Equal Treatment (covering sexual orientation, religion & belief and age in employment and training) was due to be implemented by all member States by the end of December 2003. But as many readers will know, the UK Government pressed for – and gained - a three year delay in the introduction of the age strand. The draft age regulations are due to be published by summer next year, laid before Parliament before the end of 2004 and will come into effect from 1st October 2006.