Today’s big topic: Employers hesitate to hire older unemployed workers
What’s happening?
If you are nearing retirement age and lose your job, the road back to work can be long.
That is the short version of an analysis by the Danish Trade Union Confederation (Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation, FH).
Among 59- to 66-year-olds who became unemployed between June 2023 and May 2024, 43 percent were back in work a year later. Among 50- to 58-year-olds, 59 percent had returned to work one year after losing their jobs, according to the analysis, which is based on a special dataset from Statistics Denmark.
If 59- to 66-year-olds returned to work as quickly as 50- to 58-year-olds, the analysis finds, there would be just over 3,000 additional full-time employees. And the public balance would improve by about 1.1 billion kroner through higher tax revenues and lower spending on unemployment benefits.
Why it matters!
»At a time when people are debating labor supply and reforms meant to increase it, it’s puzzling that employers don’t simply hire older job seekers. It doesn’t require any reforms,« Nanna Højlund, vice president of FH, says.
There are several trends at play in the older labor market. For instance, it is possible to receive a full state pension alongside wage income, and in December, according to Jobindsats.dk, a record number of state pensioners were working: 105,081.
At the pension company Danica, chief economist Mads Moberg Reumert is following the development closely.
»Nearly 5,000 people over 70 changed jobs last year, and that’s almost double compared with 10 years ago,« the chief economist says, and continues:
Many of the older unemployed come from sectors like industry, services, health and social care, and construction. That is, according to Nanna Højlund, »something of a paradox«.
»Those are exactly the sectors where we keep hearing about staff shortages. I think employers should step up and hire older workers,« she says.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Here are the leader of the Danish far right’s global connections
As Morten Messerschmidt’s popularity grows at home, he is also strengthening his ties to right-wing groups in Europe and to networks around Trump. Messerschmidt, who has spent a large part of his political career in the European Parliament, is a highly active figure in a network on Europe’s far right, with links to the American MAGA movement and the nationalist right wing of Israel’s parliament. Among others, he has ties to Gert Wilders, Viktor Orbán, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson.
Learn more about Messerschmidt’s connections here.
– Homeowner hit with an unjustified tax blow after spouse’s death
In recent months, Politiken has described a series of cases in which homeowners have wrongly been billed housing taxes ranging from 37,000 to more than 100,000 kroner. For months and years, citizens have struggled to have the tax assessments changed, but in most cases they have been turned away. Only when Politiken has stepped into the cases has the Danish Property Assesment Agency acknowledged and regretted the mistake and promised that the money will be repaid.
That is also what now appears to be happening in Carsten Pedersen’s case. He inherited both the apartment and a small summer house. Under the law, he was also supposed to inherit the tax discount designed to protect homeowners from being taxed out of their homes when new, higher property assessments were introduced and the property-tax freeze was lifted in 2024, as agreed by a broad political majority. Yet Carsten Petersen’s tax discount vanished along with his spouse.
Read more here.
– Several parties want the rules on decorations on children’s graves changed
According to Venstre and Moderaterne, the rules require changing after flowers and personal items were removed without notice from 47 children’s graves at Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. On April 10, decorations and personal items were removed from every children’s grave at Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. The reason, Copenhagen’s municipal authorities said, was that the grass needed cutting and the grounds had to be made ready for spring. The move sparked shock and outrage, especially among relatives who had not been notified, and because it has never previously been a problem to leave decorations on children’s graves.
New restaurant in town is world-class within its genre
What are we going to eat? Cheese. What kind of cheese? Lots of cheese.
With passion, they go all in on two heavy Alpine dishes at a new French restaurant. And they do it superbly. Cheese fondue and raclette, with an alpine mountain of melting cheese.
In Carlsbergbyen, Politiken’s reviewer ended up eating both dishes. Because the new restaurant Melt doesn’t serve any other main courses.
So, how is it?
A raclette cheese’s quality can vary wildly, and the one here in Carlsbergbyen was outstanding. Quite simply because two cheese nerds have built a business plan around a very particular product: a French raclette that has won gold several years in a row, most recently in 2025, at France’s largest agricultural fair, the Salon International de l’Agriculture.
When the elements are this simple and this few, every ingredient has to be right, and the potatoes here were boiled precisely, with a pleasing firmness and real depth, a full, distinctive flavor with a hint of earth from the thin skin.
The pickled onions worked perfectly as the sharp note that recalibrated the richness, while a platter of assorted charcuterie, from cooked ham to coppa, was the element that, for me, gave the dish its much-needed aromatic heft. As always.
It’s when you get every element on the fork at once that you get the real experience. Where the cheese meets a little resistance, so you can actually taste what it can do. And this cheese had something to offer.
After 20 years of trying, I have to conclude that I’ve never had better melted cheese than here at Melt.
The quality of the ingredients is so high and the serving so precisely calibrated that I’m willing to call it world-class within its genre.
Read the full review here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.