The difficulty older Britons experience getting jobs continues to prompt news stories, but the UK has been ahead of other European countries in the recruitment of over 50s, newly released statistics reveal. Though the OECD figures stem from research compiled more than two years ago, they show that 12% of new hires during the previous 12 months were aged 50 or over, three times the proportion in Germany and Italy and double that in Denmark. Finland was closest to the UK with 9%. Nearly one in five (19%) of the UK’s new hires were in accommodation and food related roles. Other sectors with relatively high UK proportions included administration and support (15%) and arts, recreation and associated work (14%). When it came to employers offering the flexible schedules often valued by older jobseekers the UK proportion was only 3%, on a par with Belgium and Germany but higher than those of Switzerland (1%) and France 2%.
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