It is recognised that age is a factor impacting on a person’s likelihood of exiting the live register.
During the period January-September 2013, persons aged 55-59 years accounted for 7%, and those aged 60-64 for 4%, of those leaving the Live Register to employment. Persons aged 55-60 years accounted for 6%, and those aged 60-64 for 5%, of those leaving the Live Register to take up education, training or work-programme places.
By comparison, some 8% of the Live Register is made up of persons aged 55-59 and 7% of persons aged 60-64.
The Government’s approach to tackling the unemployment problem is to focus resources on those individuals most at risk of long-term unemployment. Up to the recent past, this has been based on identifying all persons who remain on the Live Register for three months after first signing on, and referring them for more intensive job-search assistance and guidance, which may in turn lead to referral to a training or employment programme. Increasingly, referral is now based on profiling people at the beginning of a spell of unemployment, so as to focus resources on those most in need at an even earlier stage.
By definition, such an approach focuses resources on those persons who are in most need of assistance. The roll-out of the profiling system at my Department’s ‘one-stop-shop’ Intreo offices will further enhance this effect as one of the main variables in the profiling system is age. In other words, if someone is in an age category that is more likely to experience long-term unemployment, s/he will, all other things being equal, receive more targeted assistance.
Under-representation of those approaching retirement age on certain programmes may reflect the fact that some programmes involve making a long-term commitment (for example, taking up the Back to Education Allowance to up-skill could involve a commitment of up to 4 years to a third-level course).
