Unemployment also has an age

When do we stop working? This question has long been heard in the leading institutions of Europe. How can the market be adjusted to accommodate increasing life expectancy? The average retirement age in Europe is currently around 65, but is expected to rise to 66, 67 or even 68 by 2030. This question is controversial – just look at the recent protests in France – but also creates a paradox. At the same time, when the question of extending the term of employment is considered, there are people in the last stage of their career who simply cannot find a job.

Youth unemployment is much talked about, and rightly so, as the growing precariousness of the situation forces young people to face the greatest challenges in the world of work. But little attention has been paid to unemployment among the older workforce, this invisible group that also faces below-average employment rates. In Europe, 70 percent of the population works. But if we take a closer look at older workers, that figure drops to about 62-63 percent. In countries such as France, Italy, Croatia, Greece or Spain, it does not even reach 60 percent.

Older unemployed people find it almost as difficult to find work as young people just starting out. In Spain, 55 percent of the elderly unemployed have been looking for work for more than a year. They are part of the long-term unemployed, a category with many gray hairs. Seven out of ten chronically unemployed are over 50 years old.

Reasons for this include structural issues such as job instability or low levels of education, as well as ageism or ageism. “When we talk about ageism, we mean the unequal treatment of a person based on his age and without taking into account his abilities and skills,” Aida Díaz-Tendera, a researcher and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid and board member of HelpAge, an organization that seeks to highlight the unfair exclusion of completely genuine workers simply on the basis of their date of birth, says Equal times.

Need a dynamic staff

Most job ads do not explicitly state that they are looking for a “young worker.” They do not set an age limit. But the language used says it all. Whenever an ad appeals to “energetic” or “dynamic” workers, it subtly tries to exclude older applicants.

“There are many forms of hidden discrimination. With these ads, a 50-year-old is unlikely to get an interview,” says Laura Rosillo, HR and Age Management Specialist.

Businesses are generally more reluctant to hire older workers, according to an experiment conducted by the Isaac Foundation. He sent 1,600 fake resumes in response to more than 800 real job openings. The result: 50 percent fewer calls were made on the resumes of older applicants than younger applicants.

Another example was given by the Adecco Foundation, which in 2021 surveyed a hundred companies on hiring and ageism. Forty percent of them admitted that age was a problem for them when hiring, citing concerns about health problems, difficulty adapting to a young workforce, less flexibility, outdated knowledge – all ageist prejudices.

“The job market hasn’t changed with age,” insists Rasila. “That may have been true 50 years ago, but a 45-year-old is still a child these days.”

Age barriers affect women even more, and their unemployment rate is double that of men.

“Women are more victims of stereotypes that associate beauty with youth,” explains Aida Díaz-Tendera. “They also face additional disadvantages related to childcare and domestic responsibilities, and the impact this has on their working lives.”

There are legal instruments aimed at combating age discrimination, such as International Labor Organization (ILO) Recommendation 162, the European Union Directive of 2000, state legislation such as the US Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 or the Spanish Law on equal treatment (‘Ley Zerolo’) passed in 2023.

“The right to non-discrimination is a fundamental civil right. The problem is that it often goes against the freedom of contract,” says Díaz-Tendera, which is why it is important to condemn such practices, she adds. “Every decision in favor of this right is another step towards ensuring that people and their qualities are taken into account, not their age.”

We are all old

One of the most common misconceptions about older workers is that their knowledge is outdated. And there is a reason for that. Technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence are developing at such a pace that they are not the only ones becoming obsolete. We all are.

In programming schools, courses in robotics, piloting drones or 3D design, there are increasingly very young professionals, recent graduates and seniors, people who return to education either to update their knowledge or to retrain in a new field. Fifty-two-year-old Augusto Blanco is one such example. A translator by profession, he decided to get an education as a programmer and is taking an intensive course at the Releevant private school together with fellow students aged 19-20.

“I don’t mind starting from scratch, I’m very motivated, I like to learn. True, I had my doubts at first because because of my age, but not my ability, I know I can take on the challenge. What I didn’t know was whether my age would be an obstacle to finding a job afterwards,” he says. Equal times.

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is the sector with the most employment opportunities right now, but it is also one of the youngest sectors. In Spain, only 16.3 percent of ICT workers are over 50 years old. The question is whether all older workers have the same opportunities for training and development. The answer is negative. Technology training courses offered by Augusta are usually private and require a significant financial commitment.

“Public administrations do not fund such courses,” says Jose Manuel Esquera, CEO of Releevant. “There are cities that offer flamenco or ham-slicing courses to the unemployed but not programming, or cities that still offer Word courses. Education is very disconnected from the market.’

The Arrabal association offers free courses for elderly unemployed people with low incomes and limited skills, such as special training to work as a waiter or kitchen assistant, as well as digital literacy courses. Employment association technician Aurora Castro admits that “there are still people of a certain age who are lost when it comes to office automation. They didn’t have the time or resources to learn, or they didn’t see the need to. Now, however, even job interviews are conducted online, so they have to learn how to use these platforms.”

The digital divide is an obstacle to the integration of older workers. Less training means more long-term unemployment, more long-term unemployment means more poverty.

Reports such as those from the Foessa Foundation warn of an increase in severe social isolation in households headed by people aged 45 to 64. “If they fail to enter the market, they can easily become depressed and fall into a cycle that becomes difficult to break out of,” warns Castro. “They end up surviving on subsidies or a minimum income. It is “today bread, tomorrow famine.”

Public commitment

The 50-64 age group is what is known today as the “support generation.” Support because in many cases they have already started caring for their elderly parents, but also support their children, many of whom are still at home. The importance of employment is even more important at this point. “This is a population group that is as important for public policy as people over 65,” admits political scientist Aida Diaz-Tendera. “It’s also a time in life when things like health and finances become very important for the next phase.”

What is government policy doing to help them get jobs? First of all, they give employers incentives to hire older workers.

In Spain, Italy and Poland, they give discounts on their social contributions. In Finland – the country with the best employment rates for older people, along with Norway, Iceland and Sweden, where eight out of ten are working – employers also receive subsidies to cover wage costs.

“We are critical of these incentives,” explains Adria Junient, spokesperson for the Spanish trade union CCOO. “They proved to be useless as they were designed in such a way that they preferred only temporary contracts. Now they are designed better, with a commitment to maturity. In any case, they should only be a supplement to other measures, such as retraining.”

To talk about the temporary nature of employment means to talk about the quality of employment. It is necessary to work from the age of 50, but at any cost? In countries like the UK, they are beginning to warn of a new phenomenon arising from the precariousness of the times we live in: the uberisation of work for the elderly over 50, forced to work gigs, overtime on motorbikes as delivery driver. They are trying to warn against situations similar to those already observed in Japan, where a successful company to hire older people has grown in tandem with the number of accidents at work.

Changing the curriculum

The boundaries of age exclusion are very blurred. In most sectors, it’s around 50, but in others, such as startups or advertising, workers are considered old in their 40s or even 30s. However, the label “senior talent” is beginning to gain momentum and become associated with assets such as experience and commitment.

“Many companies recognize the merits and work ethic of older people,” says Fernando Fernandez Cavada, a partner at Silver Talent, an employment platform focused on this community. “We contact companies that ask for more than five years of experience, companies with positions that are very difficult to fill, for example in the construction or industrial sectors, or in areas such as hospitality and catering or customer service, where employers are looking for more attentive people with good interpersonal skills, people who are better at expressing themselves, more patient.” The platform also offers jobs across Europe. Labor mobility is not tied to the year of birth.

“There’s a job out there,” says Santiago Burnett, founder of Job50, another consulting firm that specializes in the senior workforce. “We recommend a common sense approach, clearly stating what you want.” Burnett advocates a “blind resume” that does not include personal details, photos, background or age to avoid discriminatory filters.

HR expert Laura Rosillo has her reservations. “Besides the photo and the age, if you look at a resume and it’s really long, you know the person is over 50, whether the resume is blind or not.”

More important, she says, is ensuring HR staff and those programming the algorithms that do the initial screening are properly trained.

She also recommends new strategies for the unemployed: “People over 50 cannot behave as if they were looking for their first job. It’s not about writing a resume to get a job, it’s about knowing how to offer a service by telling the company what you can do.”

A month before graduation, Augusto Blanco, a translator and newly qualified programmer, is about to face this challenge. “Some time ago I read that a person is at the peak of their career at the age of 55, that this is when they have the most to offer. I am convinced of this, but companies must also be convinced of this. I know that I will enter the market as equipped as my colleagues, the only difference is my age.”