‘I feel invisible’: over-50s reveal harsh realities of trying to get a job

Readers describe feelings of rejection after submitting hundreds of applications but getting a handful of interviews

H undreds of job applications, exhausting searches and relentless rejection – the experience of attempting to get back into the workforce after losing their jobs in their 50s and 60s has proved an ordeal for some Britons.

For some, those efforts prove fruitless and lead jobseekers to reluctantly take early retirement. Others may have to rely on benefits to pay the bills while they continue to job hunt.

Recent research by the Centre for Ageing Better found that the number of people between 50 and state pension age having difficulty finding work was 918,000 – akin to the number of young people not in education, employment or training – at the end of last year, the highest since 2020. The count was 2.9 million when including those with long-term health conditions and caring responsibilities.

The Guardian asked people over 50 to get in touch and share their experiences of trying to return to work.

James, 59, who lives in south-west England, lost his job two years ago and, since then, has had “eight interviews from 598 job applications”.

“It has been horrible … and very stressful,” he says. “I have every application listed in an Excel file, none of which were successful for the roles advertised, though I did manage to get some other items of work as a result of them. Overall I have been barely employed, perhaps severely underemployed, for two years, and I can’t find a way out of this situation.”

James, who has worked in international development, says when he was applying for jobs in the early 2020s he was getting “an interview every 15 or 20 applications” but now “it’s about one per 80 applications”.

At the moment, he is scraping by with occasional editing for organisations in his sector and a bit of freelance writing for a magazine.

“It’s tiny, but it’s something,” he says. “I’ve also been living at a relative’s house, who very kindly has said I don’t need to contribute to costs there at the moment, but I rely on my savings when I need them.”

He says job application feedback is “never shared, so I’ve no grasp of why I fail”.

He adds: “I do wonder if age is an issue. Perhaps companies think a younger person will be more flexible, more capable, and they can mould them into their particular way of working. The only thing to do is to persevere and hope.”

Sally*, 52, who has worked in the charity sector and lives in Birmingham, says she has applied for “more than 100 roles” but “still no bites”.

She has had 17 interviews in the past 10 months and has been perplexed by immediate rejections for jobs for which she seemed well suited.