Anyone else in their fifties struggling to find a new job?

[ForQuirkyTiger]

How many of you are looking for new jobs? I'm 55 years old and have been looking for a new job for 4 years. I've signed up to a career coach and even done volunteering, but it's just not happening.

have you tried the civil service?

What type of job are you applying for ?
I found a new one year contract role relatively easily at 54 and then a part time NHS admin job at age 55. For the NHS one I think what helped was they were doing bulk recruiting so they are more likely to take a punt on an “older” person if they need to recruit 10 people rather than 1.

I took a payout and have taken a six month contract in a different sector but similar role to broaden my CV and experience. Had two months off over summer holiday with kids.

It's almost impossible OP. I think I'm stuck freelancing for the next two decades until retirement. Fuck.

Applied for a very low-paid job in my specialist sector and was sent a very polite 'thank you' saying they had 520 applicants! The market is unhinged.

Took me about two/three years in my late forties, and I was very lucky to get the job that I did.

H in mid fifties was unemployed for over two years before getting a job barely above minimum wage and is now in the final checks before hopefully being offered a government job under 30k a year ( he was on 60k in the job he was made redundant from). Its really hard.

Civil service is not easy to get into - try customer service jobs in government such as HMRC. They do mass recruitments. Any mass recruitment job in government will be easier to get ( though not easy). I would suggest applying widely too - just being in employment will make you more attractive to employers than if you have had a long period of unemployment.

But yes the stats are very clear - its much harder for older people to get jobs than younger - age discrimination affects women earlier than men too, according to the research.

Just out of interest- how can you tell if it’s mass recruitment?

It usually says on the advert, I think HMRC was doing some bulk recruitment recently.

There have been quite a few media articles about this recently following Stacey Dugid going viral having shared her experience in trying to get a job. I am currently employed but looking to move and have found it really challenging. I don’t think it’s just you OP.

Same here. I’m only after pt hours admin. Nothing fancy.