Proactive Investors - EasyJet and Halfords are turning to over-45s to help ease a chronic shortage of flight attendants and motor mechanics.
No-frills airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) said anyone looking to start a new career later in life should apply, with those aged over 60 also encouraged to submit their resumes.
Luton-based easyJet has already tapped the UK’s greying population, with a 27% increase in cabin crew aged 45 or more in the past four years and a 30% rise in sixty-year-olds.
An ad campaign to coincide with the recruitment drive will highlight middle-aged staff who have joined recently.
Michael Brown, easyJet’s director of cabin services said: “Our people are at the heart of everything we do and it’s the warm welcome and fantastic customer service that our cabin crew are famous for.”
{6601|Halfords}}, meanwhile, said it wants to recruit 1,000 car technicians over the next year and is targeting retirees and women to fill the roles.
"A competitive labour market has led to capacity constraints," it said in a statement with its interim results, adding it needed the extra staff to cope with demand for its car maintenance services.
Last month, pub group Fuller’s launched a campaign to recruit older workers to ease a shortage of pub and hotel staff.
Hospitality has been especially hard hit by staff shortages with 158,000 job vacancies in the sector between July and September this year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The hospitality group runs 385 pubs mainly in the south and in London.
Dawn Browne, Fuller's people and talent director, told The Caterer: "Older workers have a lot to offer us – and we have a lot to offer them, with shift lengths and work patterns to suit.
Tony Danker, director-general of employers’ organisation the CBI recently called for changes in immigration laws to help ease the staffing situation.
"We don't have enough Brits to go round for the vacancies that exist, and there's a skills mismatch in any case,” he said, adding that “believing automation can step in to do the job in most cases is unrealistic”.