A report claiming that unemployment among the over 50s has reached a 10-year high has been slammed as “potentially very damaging” by Geoff Newman, chief executive of Recruitment Genius.

The report from Age UK claims that the number of over 50s who have been out of work for more than 12 months has risen by 52% which, it says, represents a 10-year high.

However, Newman told BBC Radio Kent that, according to the Office of National Statistics, the number of over-50s who have been unemployed for 12 months or more is actually 25.7%, which compares to 21.6% of those aged between 24-49-year-olds. Newman adds that rather than representing a 10-year high the over-50s figure is less than it was during the last recession in 2001 when it was 32%.

“This report is potentially very damaging as well as being demotivating for the unemployed over-50s. They are likely to hear this report and consider their chances of employment to be even less when, in reality, there are employers out there who are recruiting.”