AN ageing workforce is a "potential area of vulnerability" for Fife Council.

More than 40 per cent of their employees are 50-plus, just six per cent are 24 and under, and there are also issues in recruitment with lots of vacancies to fill.

Head of HR, Sharon McKenzie, confirmed: "Yes, we do have an ageing workforce.

"From the mid-40s onwards you can see a bulge in our figures, by contrast we have a smaller and younger workforce at the other end of the spectrum.

"There's much being done about that and the issues are different in different services.

"It's not always that easy in terms of workforce planning to effectively manage that as individuals have their own individual choices to make about their own working careers and how long they might work for.

"It's a potential area of vulnerability for the organisation."

She told the finance, economy and corporate services scrutiny committee that various initiatives are being tried to "grow our own talent", to encourage younger people to join and stay with the council by showing them the opportunities and different career paths they can follow.

A report said that the workforce demographic "highlights a risk of loss of talent through early retirement, not offset by strong recruitment in lower age bands".

Ms McKenzie said: "We're trying to bring people into the organisation to fill the roles that are causing us concern."

However she said Covid, Brexit and other national issues were making it difficult to fill certain roles, with recruitment problems particularly acute in catering and cleaning, social care, business support, clerical and admin, high school teachers for certain subjects, social work, childcare and planning.

Eileen Rowand, executive director of finance and corporate services, said: "In the past we've tended to budget for a four per cent vacancy factor but we have seen our vacancies being higher in specific areas.

"In business support, admin and clerical staff we're seeing vacancy levels probably at more than 10 per cent and a lot of that is to do with we're competing to recruit staff in a market where jobs are better paid elsewhere."