

Each quarter 1,000 UK SME owners across a range of sectors, regions and sizes, are surveyed by specialist independent researcher, Kantar, on Close Brothers’ behalf.
Use the drop-downs to select a year and quarter to look at the data we collected at that time.
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88
%
of firms agreed that there are 'real benefits' to employing older workers
Summary
Published August 2019
Despite SMEs overwhelmingly understanding the benefits of employing older workers - with their experience being particularly valued along with their ability to mentor more junior members of the workforce - most felt that the recruitment process discriminated against older workers. This caused half of those polled to admit to already struggling to recruit the talent they need or to foresee problems in the future. The larger the business, the bigger the concern becomes.