In despair. Husband is taking ages to find a role

I hope he's now doing much more to pull his weight in the household and family, while he's not earning.

The only piece of advice I’ve got is never put all your eggs in one basket. I ended up with three offers on the table because I anticipated getting none of them and ended up getting all of them.
It’s definitely will not be the only role available right now in his field at his level. He just needs to keep networking.

@Greenwitchart yep, it annoys me when people seem to imply you can just go and do anything - in a tight market you can apply, but probably won’t get the job and sometimes the better qualified and more experienced you are the worse it is - it’s almost easier if you never moved beyond retail shop floor or a bit of bar work etc if over 45 - ageism is absolutely rife- I look round the co working centre that I work from and the only people over late 40s are usually the company owners. ( bear in mind this is all private business- no public service jobs)

Exactly.

I am 55 and had to leave a senior management role about 8 months ago. I complained about bullying & my manager tried to push me out for about a year. I was the oldest person in the department and the only one with a long term health condition considered a disability. We agreed on settlement to avoid me taking them to a tribunal.

So far I have only been able to do freelance work as a permanent job as an employee has been elusive.

I have applied for anything from retail jobs & admin jobs to jobs that reflect my seniority both temporary and permanent but I am still looking.

I am starting to think that working for myself and/or retraining might be the only thing left for me.

I have no doubt that being older and having some limitations that come with a long term health conditions and years of management experience don't make me that attractive to many employers and that is just the reality.

Yep - we work for ourselves and have a company - if I needed to get a job at 64 then I’m very aware I would struggle to get admin jobs, never mind management jobs , despite knowing how to do accounts, digital and press marketing, company accounting and solid understanding of our industry- it’s why so many over 50s end up setting up for themselves even if it’s not full time- i would probably if working for someone else have to look at doing a bit of part time at M&S or Waitrose and even then would they pick me as I have zero retail experience and would they be thinking - she will be off as soon as something better turns up - I’m not sure! It’s really not as straight forward as many think, especially if older or have held professional jobs or businesses. I actually would be quite happy if needed being office manager or HR 3 days a week ( used to do these roles) - but I am a realist and know I wouldn’t get it.

Well they definitely took DS and his girlfriend

And seeing as my cousin works in HR department for them it's hardly unusual.

They take A level students who bugger off to uni a few months later and may or may not work in the holidays

McDonalds don't want to hire people who will leg it out of the door when they find a job they can do...

And youth unemployment in the UK is currently at 16%. Amongst the highest in Europe. And that's for people only entitled to a lower minimum wage...

There is no "easy to get" work for people to walk into. The end of zero hour contracts, the increase in NI, the changes in worker entitlements, mean these have died even more of a death than they did before.

Everyone knows the job market is tough. But most people don't have the opportunity to not get anything at all for a bloody year.

If id have done that my house would've been repossessed and id have starved..

Strangely if that is the option most people find something.

Some people do have comprehension issues it seems...

I was making a general point about the job market being tough and replying to someone who implied that anyone who does not get a job within a year is being 'picky'.

For many people, indulging the disabled/older workers/people who have just graduated there are additional barriers to finding work and it is not about being 'picky'.

Is it really that hard to grasp?

Why did you say that you did then? 👀

Where are the disabled over 50s coming into it?

Yeah my son is a healthy graduate as was his girlfriend the year before. They both spent a few months working in McDonald's while applying for other jobs. Hardly that unusual

So what about the " application forms" you had to fill in or not fill in? What option is the truth and what did you lie about?

Who are the " minions" anyway?

Yes, the truth is hard for the minions to swallow.

As I have said the job market is difficult.

You are also very naive if you think employers are clamouring to employ people who are disabled or over 50...which is why for some people job searching can take more than just a few weeks/month.

A 55 year old with health issues or a youngster in a wheelchair for example won't be able to take ''any job''.

We have perfectly healthy and well qualified young graduates unable to get jobs at the moment too.

It is very black and white thinking to say that someone who can't find a job is being ''picky''...

Strange that as on a previous post you said "
I had to listen to this bollocks about four months ago. Imagine if I’d have been wasting my time working in McDonald’s for £13 an hour rather than filling out application forms for the 120 grand a year job I landed. 🙄

So you had to fill them in earlier but now don't have such things for your job. And your username is apprentice Whiff of bullshit about I think

You don’t fill out application forms for 120 K job and if I was entitled to government support, I would a bloody well claimed it. I’ve paid enough tax.

It didn't take 168 hours a week, every week for a year to fill in application forms though did jt?

If you were supporting yourself ( or got someone else to do so) while not " wasting time working at McDonald's" then fine

If you getting govt support then not fine

I’m not sure about this. When I got made redundant from a highly paid professional role, I got a part-time job in the coffee shop near my house whilst I was jobhunting. It kept some money coming in, kept me sane and I spent the afternoons doing job applications attending interviews, etc. Maybe I was lucky but it kept me going through an incredibly difficult period.

Err actually " they" do. My friend is hr for a supermarket. Many of the jobs are taking by " overqualified" people because of things like childcare or merely needing work.
There are shelf stackers with degrees as hours work for them

Courier jobs are easy to come by as well.
.
McDonald's have quite a few graduates working for them also. MY DS was one for a few months while he looked for something else ( all 2025 info before people ramble on about " back in the day"

I had to listen to this bollocks about four months ago. Imagine if I’d have been wasting my time working in McDonald’s for £13 an hour rather than filling out application forms for the 120 grand a year job I landed. 🙄

Exactly that ! And it’s what some people just don’t quite get -

There aren’t “any” jobs available
There are jobs that people are suited to and Qualified for
They aren’t going to give somebody who spent 20 years in project management on IT systems a role in Tesco’s for obvious reasons
Equally they aren’t going to give an 18-year-old waiting for their A-level results Sole charge of HSE to budget for and see if they can roll it through to completion
The take any job fallacy is exactly that

But not take any job until you find a suitable " role" then? I can't imagine benefits would cough up for a year of being picky

I assume that that people claim benefits, use savings, had some redundancy pay or a financial settlement or are being supported by a partner who has a job.

The job market is not great right now so it takes people longer to find work. Not to mention that for older workers, disabled people and young people with no experience it is especially difficult to secure a job quickly.