FIRMS are targeting over-50s after an exodus of older staff was blamed for shortages and high wages.
Halfords, easyJet and McDonald’s have launched campaigns to encourage the “Great Unretirement” but to a mixed response so far.
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Airline easyJet said that its campaign featuring over-45s had seen cabin crew applications rise by 75 per cent.
Director Michael Brown said: “We wanted more talented people looking for a career change later in life.
“With part-time as well as full-time opportunities available, we can offer a career with flexibility that many think this job may not have.”
However, bikes-to-garages business Halfords has taken on just one 68-year-old with only nine more applications pending after hundreds responded to its over-50s apprenticeship scheme.
Last week the Bank of England highlighted that 3.5million workers between the aged 50 to 64 had stopped working — 300,000 more than two years ago.
The biggest reason was long-term sickness, it said.
The scale of inactivity is more pronounced in the UK than any other major economy, denting productivity and driving wage inflation.
Some retired workers told The Sun they were encouraged to stop work by George Osborne’s pension freedom reforms in 2015, which let people cash in pots at 55.
Age UK has also said many grandparents are now busy providing childcare.
A rise in pandemic-related long-term sickness has led to 1.6million adults aged 50-plus unable to work, 20 per cent more than three years ago, according to over-50s platform Rest Less.
Retailer John Lewis said: “Employers need to work with the Government to incentivise people of all ages and backgrounds into work.”
Kids don’t look up to Crouch … even if he is 6ft 7in
HE might be married to a beautiful model, capped 42 times for England and the host of a top sports podcast but Peter Crouch has been ruled irrelevant to today’s youth.
The Advertising Standards Authority yesterday agreed with bookie Paddy Power’s defence of its Christmas ad that Peter Crouch did not “appeal to under-18s”.
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Following a complaint that Crouchy could have encouraged children into betting, Paddy Power argued that the 41-year-old was “not aspirational to under-18s in any way”.
The firm argued that since 2011 the former footballer had only played for “Stoke City or Burnley and all of his six appearances at Burnley were as a substitute”.
It said that while Crouch was at Stoke the team was relegated from the Premier League.
He wasn’t on TikTok and his punditry for BT Sport only took place after the watershed.
Split gas cost for EVs call
ELECTRICITY prices should be decoupled from the soaring cost of gas to accelerate the switch to electric vehicles, business groups have argued.
As more of the UK’s energy supply comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar it no longer makes sense for electricity market prices to be set by expensive gas-fired power plants, experts argued.
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EV group FairCharge , the RAC and Octopus Energy said separating electricity from gas would mean home and business energy bills would be cheaper as well.
The average cost of using public fast EV chargers increased by 50 per cent in the past year, making running a petrol car cheaper.
Meanwhile the price of diesel has fallen below 170p a litre for the first time since March 2022, according to the RAC.
FairCharge has also called for VAT at charge points to be reduced to the per cent levied on domestic electricity.
Creation of sales
PZ CUSSONS toasted an 18.8 per cent rise in sales after introducing 95p shower gels range Cussons Creations.
The toiletries brand said sales soared to £336.9million in the past six months.
Boss Jonathan Myers said it had not passed on all the costs it faced but a bottle of Imperial Leather shower gel rose from from £1 to £1.50.
The firm is also expanding its recently acquired Childs Farm brand into Australia.
Homebuy help
BRITAIN’S biggest housebuilder Barratt Developments yesterday flagged green shoots in the market after “early signs” of demand.
Last month Barratt warned there had been a “marked slowdown” in housebuyers as mortgage rates became more expensive and people held off waiting for prices to fall.
The firm said sales had risen slightly since the end of last year.
But boss David Thomas said: “We need to see continued momentum before we can be confident trading conditions are easing.”
THE FTSE 100 hit an all-time high yesterday rising nearly one per cent to 7,934.30.
Traders digested a report suggesting the UK could dodge a recession and signals that the US central bank would ease raising interest rates.
The index closed at 7,885.21.
Gaming glitch
THE competition watchdog has said Microsoft’s £57billion takeover of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard could weaken rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation.
Microsoft announced the biggest ever deal in gaming a year ago.
But the Competition and Markets Authority said it could mean higher prices and fewer choices with less incentive for innovation.
It suggested Microsoft could sell off the part of the business that manages Call of Duty. But experts said this would kill off the deal.
