Free Republic

Over-50s are resigning at an alarming rate and are unlikely to return to the workforceIf you thought it was only young people fleeing the workforce, think again. The UK is currently seeing a large number of over-50s resigning en masse from the workforce at a startling rate - known as a “silver exodus”. According to The Times newspaper, around 300,000 more workers aged between 50 and 65 are now considered “economically inactive” than before the pandemic, meaning that these older workers are neither employed or seeking a job. One would assume that this is a luxury afforded only to those...

Older workers in Germany are allowed more time off than younger ones, a court ruled on Tuesday, saying the difference was not discriminatory. Younger employees of a shoe manufacturer in Rhineland-Palatinate brought a case against their employer for giving two extra days off per year to their colleagues aged 58 and over and appealed it to the country’s highest labor court. But Germany’s anti-discrimination law (AGG) allows for different treatment for workers based on their age, experience or length of service under certain conditions, the judges said. …

It could mean more jobs or just more discrimination suits One look at the demographic tables suggests that age discrimination suits might be the next big wave of workplace litigation in the United States. But a second look might lead to the conclusion that older workers soon could find themselves more keenly appreciated by their bosses than ever. Which version of events plays out, or whether it's a combination of both, could prove one of the more interesting workplace questions of the next decade or two. What are the numbers driving the debate? The first one is 77 million. The...

Older Workers Are Thriving Despite Recent Hard Times By LOUIS UCHITELLE Without fanfare, older workers — the ones seemingly left behind by the dot.com boom — are turning out to be the only group thriving in the jobless recovery. Even as younger workers have lost ground, a higher percentage of those aged 55 to 64 hold jobs today than when the economy plunged into hard times in early 2001. Their success has shifted the composition of the work force: older people now make up 12 percent of the nation's workers, up from 10.2 percent in 2000. That was the year...