Are you past landing a job at 55? The reality of ageism despite labour shortages

Friday, 27 January 2023

Chris Roberts re-entry to the job market in his late fifties included an introduction to the reality of age bias.

For older job-seekers like Christine Black, the low unemployment rate has improved her odds of getting an interview.

The 61-year-old accountant recently got shortlisted for a call centre job, an improvement on five years ago when she applied for the same position and didn’t get a look in.

Being asked if you have any health issues or told you are over-qualified, (which she was for the call centre position), can be shorthand for “you’re too old,” and Black says ageism is still a problem.

“Somebody said to me ‘your life experience exceeds our expectations’ … I know a lot of under-employed women between 50 and 65.”

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Christine Black says going through the job selection process is a whole different ball game for older candidates. “Some young people feel awkward interviewing someone who is old enough to be their mother or grandmother.”

Business consultant Chris Roberts is enjoying less formal attire as a contract worker where he says his depth of experience is a bonus. “If the right full-time role came along, great, but I’m very happy with the way things are right now.”

Although recruiters believe the tight labour market has made things a little easier for the 55-plus demographic, they agree this group still face challenges.

Frog Recruitment managing director Shannon Barlow says the increase in part-time and remote work has opened up more opportunities for them, and the skills shortage has forced employers to “look outside the cookie cutter mould they might have thought was the right fit when looking for staff previously.”

Ian Fraser runs the seniors@work job platform which has 3500 over-50s job hunters registered, and he finds employers struggling to fill vacancies are more willing to consider hiring older workers whose loyalty is very attractive.

“They’re unlikely to be looking for their next job straight away.

“It’s still hard, there’s still that age bias and discrimination out there, no question.”

Ageism the last taboo

Just over a quarter of New Zealand Post’s 4486 employees are aged over 55, including 64-year-old postie Mike Miron, pictured doing pre-Christmas deliveries.

Chris Roberts, who just turned 57, left his chief executive position at Tourism Industry Aotearoa in early 2022 after a couple of torrid years nursing the sector through the pandemic.

He says prospective employers have been up front that he is not the right gender or ethnicity, but the ‘o’ word seems to be out of bounds.

“[They’re] not openly saying, ‘we think you are a bit too old,’ but you get left with the impression that was a factor. I think it’s the last remaining taboo that’s there, but unspoken.

“I didn’t feel old, and it didn’t even occur to me that age could be a factor in picking up roles.”

Roberts wonders whether employers feel someone in their 50s doesn’t have the energy left to fully devote themselves a new job, but he suggests they are probably more excited about a new opportunity, and will really “give it their all.”

He has not encountered any ageism in the gig economy where having a few decades experience is valued, and he is busy doing contract work for businesses and government agencies lacking capacity to do it themselves.

The greying workforce

Trade support manager Alan Gemmill, 64, says that after winding up his own building business, “boredom set in” and he enjoys working at Bunnings where there is less pressure. “It’s not like a real job, it’s like working in a toy store for me.”

A third of the workforce is over the age of 55, and the proportion working past retirement age has risen steadily.

In 2008, 15% of those aged 65-plus were employed, compared with just over 25% in 2022.

According to Stats NZ forecasts, by 2043 the labour force will have up to 386,000 people aged 65-plus, almost double the number in 2020.

Of the 10,000 applicants for short term jobs helping run this year’s census, about a third were over-55s, and just over a quarter of New Zealand Post’s 4486 staff are in that age group.

Mike Miron, 63, took up a postie job in Timaru last May after three decades in the police and a stint doing lab work with Fonterra.

He has every intention of keeping on working after he picks up his Gold Card.

Te Pae convention centre guest assistant coordinator Rowena Fletcher says lacking confidence is a big thing when applying for jobs in your 50s, and improving her computer skills helped her score a new career.

“It’s keeping me fit and healthy, I get plenty of time off to do the things I want to do.”

Bunnings also targets older recruits with life experience and DIY smarts, including ex-builders and tradies like Alan Gemmill, 64, the trade supplies manager at a Christchurch Bunnings store.

The position draws heavily on his background in gas installation, building, and home renovation, and he says more mature staff have a lot of offer to both customers and co-workers.

“We have a lovely healthy sprinkling of grey heads, it helps to teach the younger guys, even the ones that are department heads, most of whom are about the age of my kids in their mid-thirties.”

Christchurch’s Te Pae convention centre has employees ranging in age from 16 to 70, and general manager Ross Steele says they really value the life experience of more mature workers, and their often extensive knowledge of the city.

Three and a half months into a job as a guest assistant coordinator at Te Pae Rowena Fletcher, 51, is right at home. “I feel like I’ve been here forever.”

When the Retirement Commission surveyed 500 companies in 2019, it found 65% agreed that older workers could face barriers to being hired on the grounds of age.

She was worried her age might count against her after 18 years as a pre-school manager, and that she would be typecast as only suitable for work with children.

Conscious that she lacked computer skills, she did online training through the open polytechnic, and despite a few rejections, some of which she suspected might be age related, she could not be happier about taking the plunge to change jobs.

Battling the age barrier

The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, and unless it is a genuine qualification for a job – such as bar work – it can be unlawful for an employer to ask your age in a job interview.

The Human Rights Commission says jobseeker complaints about age discrimination are trending downwards.

Over the past five years it has received 109 such claims, and just under half were from people who believed their application was declined due to being too old.

Acutely aware of the potential handicap when competing with much younger talent, some job hunters try to downplay or disguise their age.

Age and work consultant Geoff Pearman says everyone is impacted by age, and managers biassed against employing older workers would be well advised to remember that. “There’s a wonderful quote that when we discriminate on the basis of age, we’re discriminating against our future selves.”

A woman in her mid-50s with considerable expertise in digital marketing says it taking so long to finish her university degree proved to be a huge advantage.

“I can really massage my CV because I graduated in 2012, really late.”

Black has not worked full time since 1995 when she had children, but has done a wide range of part-time work based on her accountancy skills, including running her own business, and a contract role helping to settle new migrants.

She wants a full time position to help pay for her husband’s hip replacement, and has another job interview coming up.

“I rewrote my CV, so it doesn’t have too many dates in it.”

Fraser says that’s a good strategy, and for CVs he recommends sticking to your last decade in the workforce.

“I made that mistake, I thought some of the work I did in the mid to late seventies was really good stuff, but was advised most employers will consider your last 10 to 12 years, and they’re not necessarily interested in your work history before that.”

Tourism Talent managing director Jason Hill is seeing demand for experienced managers aged over 50 who have well established industry networks.

He says being active on LinkedIn, posting regularly and accumulating connections, can pay big dividends for mature job hunters who can draw on those networks to find positions that might not be formally advertised.

“People don’t use LinkedIn as well as they should. It’s best to get established before you need to use it.”

Geoff Pearman’s Partners in Change consultancy, specialises in workforce ageing, and while he agrees ageism is alive and well, he says it is often not the sole factor in failed job applications.

It’s important to up-skill, as Fletcher did, and to understand the job market.

The average age of New Zealand’s more than 60,000 public servants is trending downwards, and those under the age of 35 now make up about a third of the workforce.

“It’s not simply about putting in 100 applications, it’s about a lot of informal networking, connecting with people, offering yourself in different ways to what you did in your 20s, 30s, and 40s.”

Stephen Olsen, 61, has a background in journalism, communications and corporate affairs, and he is reluctantly contemplating a return to working in Australia where he worked for four years.

He says age is less of an issue there, and years of experience are afforded more respect.

“I saw people being prepared for changing their roles, they were doing more mentoring and coaching.”

When the Retirement Commission surveyed 500 companies in 2019, it found a third were worried about the impact the ageing workforce would have one their business, with many already experiencing skill shortages.

Yet 80% had no specific strategies or policies to recruit or retain workers aged 50-plus.

Pearman has worked on both sides of the Tasman over the past decade, and he says Australia is way ahead of us in addressing ageism, and looking at ways to hang on to senior staff.

“We’re in the middle of demographic denial-ism. I’ve only worked with three or four New Zealand companies who are open to a conversation about this.”

Businesses are screaming out for increased migration to fill job vacancies, but Pearman would like to see them also tapping into the pool of older workers.

For example, “grey nomads” travelling in motorhomes and willing to work in orchards during harvest season can supplement RSE workers from the Pacific Islands.

“Too quickly we turn to blaming immigration settings, we don’t ask what else is going on.”

Pearman says employers should be more proactive about talking to older employees about the next phase of their working life.

“Asking what your goals are next year for anybody over the age of 50 doesn’t cut it, the conversation needs to be ‘what’s the contribution you want to make.’”

Some may want to step back from management roles, but it’s important not to assume they want to work less because some lacking retirement savings may actually want to increase their hours

Last year the Government launched an older workers employment action plan focussing on access to training and up-skilling for people aged 50 and over to ensure they can find jobs or stay in work.

With 40% of long term jobseeker support recipients aged 50 to 64, the need is clearly there, and the plan aims to improve employment services so this age group feels more comfortable using them.

A trial offering intensive help for older workers facing imminent or recent job losses, is on the cards too.

Pearman says such initiatives are at least a start, but given New Zealand’s ageing population, the relative youth of policy analysts providing advice to government departments and ministers is a concern because the public service is supposed to reflect and understand the community it serves.

For most occupational groups the proportion of public servants aged 55-plus has increased slightly over the past decade, but policy analysts are a notable exception, and just 11% are over the age of 55.

Pearman says that sort of under-representation would not be acceptable for gender or ethnicity, and it matters because of the risk of conscious or unconscious age bias.

“My experience in working with employers is that most managers experience with ageing is their parents, and they think all older people are therefore like that.”