IN YOUR OWN WORDS…

Discursive essay by Diego H.P. (23) C1/CAE level.

UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG PEOPLE OVER 50

Unemployment is one of the greatest problems every country has to deal with. One big part of this issue is the percentage of people over fifty that do not have a job. For instance, in Spain there are more than half a million people who are over 50 and do not have a job. Furthermore, these people can not find a job because of their age, accentuating the problem.

One of the ways to deal with this complication has been retraining. Under this process, older people attend courses or programs to update their knowledge about new techniques or new technologies to catch up with younger coworkers in this aspect. Consequently, we can assume that if we had had this retraining before, we would have had less unemployment in people over 50.

However, we have to take into account that many businesses prefer to hire younger people because they are usually more flexible with their schedule, do not have kids to take care of or they accept lower wages. In addition, governments typically give aid to companies that hire young people to reduce youth unemployment,whereas they give nothing in regards to people over fifty. So, in my opinion, retraining is not a good way to approach this problem.

In fact, the best way to cope with this problem from my perspective is early retirement. If we lower the retirement age to 55, we will immediately not only diminish the number of people over 50 that are jobless, but also create easier access for young people who want to have their first job. To improve this measure, we should implement an earlier age to start working and better connections between universities and the the work market.

As a result of this, almost every graduate from university would ideally have a job immediately.