Call issued for over-50s entrepreneurs

Date: 17th August 2009

Numbers of business start ups launched by older Britons could increase in the recession, a campaigns group has suggested.

PRIME, which specialises in helping over-50s entrepreneurs, said that striking out on a new business venture rather than trying to get another job would be a "much better solution" for those recently made unemployed.

The comments follow the release of a new report from the Trades Union Congress, which found that half of all older people who are unemployed have been out of work for over a year.

Each year of being jobless makes it 24.3 per cent less likely that the individual will not find work again.

Laurie South, chief executive of PRIME, said: "I think there is an increasing acceptance that we have got a real problem about over 50s joblessness, because most people now know somebody over 50 who is workless."

He added: "You are unlikely to get back into the labour market if you are out of work for six months after being redundant. You stand a one in ten chance, so what we do is help people start their own business. It's a much better solution."

Recent official labour market data revealed that unemployment continues to rise in the UK.

Just over 2.4 million people were out of work over the three months to June, the report showed.

Meanwhile, a separate survey from Friends Provident showed earlier this month that Britain's 51 to 55-year-olds were twice as likely to be worried by the recession as 18 to 25-year-olds.