Supermarket chain Asda is targeting bingo halls and tea dances to try to recruit more older workers.

Recruitment teams from the group are hitting the streets with flyers as Asda ditches traditional advertising routes for its "Goldies" campaign.

Around 16 per cent of Asda's workforce is made up of over 50-year-olds and the Leeds-based grocer wants to increase this to one-in-five.

Posters and shelf labels will also appear in Asda's 252 stores advertising vacancies available at the chain from porters to people greeters.

Asda said older workers often had just as much enthusiasm, experience and customer service skills as their younger colleagues.

The group has also seen absenteeism drop to levels a third below its national average at stores with a high percentage of older staff.

At Asda in Eastbourne, 22 per cent of staff are over 50.

The CBI estimates a third of the UK's over-50s are currently out of work.