2023-07-04 08:16:10
Unemployed workers over 50 find it difficult to convince employers to hire them, especially following a layoff. The sociologist René Knüsel recommends continuous training and adaptations of the working conditions of seniors. The latter might become an asset in overcoming the labor shortage.
Age prejudices still die hard: employers find that those over 55 represent a significant cost. They also fear that they will be absent too often or that they will fall ill.
However, the unemployment rate for seniors remains low in Switzerland – around 2%. But they are mostly affected by long-term unemployment. A quarter of unemployed over 55s have been unemployed for more than a year, compared to 10% of the rest of the population.
To increase their chances of finding a job, the sociologist René Knüsel believes that it is necessary to rely above all on continuing education, which he describes as “undervalued” at present. “We must think regarding continuing education as accompanying people throughout the course of life and not simply in the idea of training that will be useful or adequate for the profession that we exercise”, declared Tuesday in La Matinale le honorary professor at the University of Lausanne.
A model to rethink
This reinforcement is made all the more necessary by the aging of Switzerland. A third of workers are already over 50 years old. Another avenue mentioned by René Knüsel would be to make the arduous nature and schedules of certain jobs more flexible.
“You have to completely rethink jobs that have difficult hours, often in standing positions, saleswomen for example. We don’t think [pour l’instant] not the way jobs are occupied at an advanced age”, argues the sociologist.
“These changes in outlook are fundamental”, pleads René Knüsel. “We must admit that people work differently and at different intensities during their lives. We are not going to ask masons to continue working beyond the age of 55, 60 or 65 at the rate at which they worked before. But these people can organize the site, make a foreman, etc., “he says. According to him, some of these older workers might fill the labor shortage. Last week, Economiesuisse specified that more than 400,000 people will be missing from the labor market by 2040.
>> Listen to the interview with René Knüsel in La Matinale: Switzerland is still sorely lacking in manpower: interview with René Knüsel / La Matinale / 1 min. / today at 06:16
>> Read regarding it: Economiesuisse warns of a labor shortage in all sectors
Recommended legal change
Some even advocate a right to work equivalent to the right to retirement, which would make it possible to gradually exit the market according to one’s physical possibilities and financial needs.
In other words, a flexible end of career to prevent the oldest from being pushed into prolonged unemployment.
>> Read also: The labor shortage can encourage the hiring of seniors
Virginie Langerock/ami
1688459468
#promote #hiring #seniors #struggling #find #job #rts.ch
