Nowadays more and more older people who are looking for work have to compete with younger people for the same jobs. What problems does this cause? What are some possible solutions?
It is commonly observed today that those above 55 are predisposed to cut-throat competition from their younger counterparts. This has made them vulnerable to umpteen complications, making it imperative to discover panacea for this predicament.
The most prominent of the troublesome circumstances resulting out of this phenomenon is that the elderly are left out of the fray by virtue of being oblivious to modern technology and methods, something the younger generation is quite familiar with: the current curriculum involves disseminating knowledge about these methods. To corroborate, most companies, world over, prefer to hire personnel who are tech savvy and friendly with up-to-date working procedures, and the older generation stands a rare chance to be selected for such jobs.
Moreover, this is predisposing the older generation to extreme struggles as they have to rely on either part time work - that rarely helps them make their ends meet, or survive on their savings, resulting in financial troubles, and forcing them to survive in extreme penury. To exemplify, post pandemic, when most businesses started hiring personnel, they selectively choose healthier young workers; consequently, many seniors had to sell their belongings, or do menial jobs to scrape a living.
Overcoming this challenge is possible provided policymakers take pragmatic steps: affording free of cost training to those above 50, so that the latter can get on a level playing field; and use the upgraded knowledge to be deemed as eligible. Similarly, employers should be persuaded to alter their hiring strategies and allocate equal priority to the experience besides adroitness in modern ways of working.
Overall, the stiff competition being posed by young job aspirants is making the older workers prone to unemployment and impoverishment, and to ameliorate this, the state should intervene and afford free education and modify certain norms.
