Almost half of global employers do not recognise the value of older workers, according to HSBC bank’s Future of Retirement report.
The survey of 27,000 employees across 20 countries, revealed that just over 40% of employers believed in losing older workers to make room for a younger workforce.
UK employers were twice as likely to recruit older workers compared with the global average of less than a quarter (23%).
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents rejected the notion of a mandatory retirement age and more than a third (36%) said people should retire when the time was right or when they are no longer able to work (25%).
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A quarter of the respondents (25%) also said that recruiting older workers was too expensive.
Almost all UK employers (82%) said that losing older workers meant losing valuable skills.