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Key Points
  • Despite many reporting hard-to-fill vacancies, not all employers are as open to hiring people of certain age groups.
  • A recent survey found employers were most reluctant to hire those over 50 or under 24 years.
  • Hesitancy to hiring over 50s is leaving job seekers like Fiona feeling irrelevant, years before retirement age.
Fiona Cootes has more than two decades of experience working in events management but she wonders if she should include that detail when applying for jobs.
The 58-year-old has been looking for work for more than a year since finishing her last contract and is concerned potential employers may not want to hire someone her age.
Cootes said despite believing she was “the perfect fit” for a recent role she applied for, she was told the other applicant she was up against was “a better culture fit”, which she feels was likely a reference to her age.
“I used to write in applications that I had 20 plus years of experience, and a friend actually advised me not to say that, they suggested I should say ‘extensive experience’ instead,” she told SBS News.

She now only includes roles she has worked in across the past 10 years on her resume, but said she could not hide the fact she was not in her 20s or 30s when showing up for an interview.

“I’ve never felt old, but this is the first time in my life that I’ve been made to feel old and irrelevant and scared for my future, that I might not get another job,” Cootes said.

New research from the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) suggests employers may be overlooking experienced professionals due to their age.
A graph showing age groups at which HR professionals classify somebody as an older worker.

Nearly 24 per cent of this year’s respondents consider workers aged between 51 and 55 to be older, more than double the proportion from 2023 (10 per cent), according to the report. Source: SBS News

How old is ‘old’?

The report, Older and Younger Workers: What Do Employers Think?, the fifth such national survey of employers and human resources professionals, revealed almost one in four employers considered workers in their 50s ‘old’ and were reluctant to hire people over 50.
Sarah McCann-Bartlett, CEO of the Australian HR Institute, said despite growing labour shortages, the findings suggested many employers remained hesitant to hire workers over 50.
“It found that employers are increasingly viewing workers as older at a younger age,” she said.

“People are being written off well before retirement age, with nearly one in four respondents stating that a 51 to 55-year-old is considered old and that’s more than double the figure in 2023.”
A table illustrating the openness of employers to hiring individuals from various age groups.

Just 56 per cent of HR professionals say they are open to hiring people aged between 50 to 64, and only 28 per cent report being open to hiring those aged 65 and over “to a large extent”, the findings state. Source: SBS News

Cootes said despite having what she described as “a broad wealth of experience and knowledge”, having worked for the Queensland government, a five-star hotel and the Census, among a number of other employers, she had found it challenging to get an interview.

“It just makes me feel totally irrelevant and redundant,” she said.
She said while she wanted to put her skills and experience to the best use, she had recently applied for a role that was a more junior position than the ones she had worked in and still never got an interview.
At the same time, she said it did not seem fair that people of a certain age should have to feel as though they should take on much more junior roles simply because they were considered ‘old’.
“I’m worth more than that to start at the bottom of the chain again,” she said.

“And what does that do for my confidence when I’ve had dozens of years in the workforce, and for someone to say, oh, just get any job, it doesn’t matter, just get an income, it does matter.”

Productivity growth
Despite more than half of respondents reporting hard-to-fill vacancies, just 56 per cent stated they are open to hiring workers aged 50–64 “to a large extent”, with that number halving for those over 65.
McCann-Bartlett said sidelining certain people due to irrelevant factors, such as age, in the current economy, which was experiencing skills shortages, made little sense.

“In a tight labour market, there is a clear economic imperative to tap into the full potential of the available labour pool, and that means building inclusive practices that support employees at every stage of their careers,” she said.

A table showing criterie where older workers were rated higher than younger workers.

A substantial majority of employers rate older workers higher than younger workers in terms of reliability, commitment, loyalty, awareness, and ability to cope with stress, according to the report. Source: SBS News

Economists have expressed concern about Australia’s lagging productivity rate, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers has identified improving it as one of his key priorities, having called it the most significant structural problem facing the economy.

Productivity growth fell by 1 per cent in the year to March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The results indicated employers thought younger workers were less able to cope with stress and less reliable, while they rated older workers relatively low in terms of career ambition and their ability to use technology.

Age-based assumptions

McCann-Bartlett said while most HR professionals agreed job performance did not differ by age, the research found that many age-based assumptions were being made in the workplace.

A table showing criteria where younger workers were rated higher than older workers.

Among the most commonly cited advantages of employing younger workers are perceived proficiency with technology (79 per cent), being more physically capable (59 per cent), and having more energy (52 per cent). Source: SBS News

“Younger workers were seen as less likely to cope with stress and less reliable, while older workers were rated relatively low for career ambition and their ability to use tech,” McCann-Bartlett said.

Encouraging multigenerational workplaces

Over 50s were not the only age group for whom employers showed reluctance in hiring; the research also showed that employers were wary of hiring those under 24.
Of those surveyed, 41 per cent said they were open to recruiting job seekers aged 15 to 24 “to a large extent”.
McCann-Bartlett said hesitancy around hiring people from certain age groups only limited employers’ access to essential skills and experience that different groups of people have to offer.
“If we want to lift productivity in Australia, we need to use better use of the talent we already have and that means hiring based on skills, not age and keeping great experience in the workforce for longer,” she said.

“To support a multigeneration workforce employers can do things like implement training and inclusivity initiatives that support age diversity, this is things like training leaders to better lead across generations, offering phased retirement, job sharing, and providing career planning to encourae workers to stay in the workforce longer.”
Robert Fitzgerald, age discrimination commissioner at AHRC, said the recent report’s findings highlighted the need for sustained action against ageism.
“What we’re seeing is bias at both ends of the age range. Sadly, this undermines diversity of thought and productivity,” he said.
“Older and younger workers can be a real advantage for businesses.”
Fitzgerald said age-diverse teams bring different life experiences to the table and that such workforces are better at solving problems.
“Employers need to support inclusive workplaces, where competency isn’t assessed against age or career stage.
“Providing equal opportunity for people of all ages to remain engaged in meaningful work can enhance productivity, while also helping close skills gaps.”
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