Yet another story about age prejudice.
Bob Epps was at the peak of his career in senior management when he was unexpectedly made redundant in his mid-50s.
The now 63-year-old picked up some contract work, but repeated rejection left a bitter taste as he tried to land a permanent position.
“I would have applied for over 100 jobs in that C-suite, senior sort of GM and upwards level roles and I didn’t even get one interview,” he said. “I felt gutted.”
His experience is borne out in new data that paints a bleak picture for job-hunters aged over 50.
A report, jointly produced by the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Human Resources Institute, found almost one quarter of HR professionals now classify workers aged 51 to 55 as “older”.
The main issue is age prejudice by recruiters and hiring managers.
The report, Older and Young Workers: What do Employers Think? is the fifth national survey of employers and HR professionals.
The report surveyed 138 employers across Australia, providing a snapshot of how workers were perceived, supported and included in Australian workplaces.
Robert Fitzgerald, Australia’s Age Discrimination Commissioner, who is a former Productivity Commissioner, said the country must acknowledge it is an aging society and embrace employing older workers.
There are calls for the age pension to kick in sooner for manual labourers who are physically struggling to work until retirement age.
“The tragedy is so many employers still have biases and stereotypes, make recruitment decisions based on age and there is an in-built prejudice,” he said.
“We won’t solve the productivity problem that Australia has [unless] we increase the labour force participation rate significantly.
“This is now an economic and social imperative for the nation.”
The commissioner said the AHRC had received hundreds of complaints in relation to the Age Discrimination Act, concerning age being used in employment and recruitment decisions.
Sarah McCann-Bartlett, chief executive of the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) said the report found recruiters and employers were reluctant to hire workers under 24 or over 50.
“There is a very strong message that if we want to lift productivity in Australia, we do need to make better use of the talent that’s out there and this means that we should be focusing on hiring on skills, not on assumptions around age and trying to keep experience in the workforce,” she said.
The report made 18 recommendations in recruitment, training, workplace inclusivity, health and wellbeing initiatives.
These include calls for age-neutral job advertisements, audits of AI resume screeners for biases, and career-transition support for mid to late career employees.
Nicole Gorton, director at recruitment agency Robert Half, believes the perception of “older workers” by those hiring is largely driven by assumptions about technology adoption.
“When I am speaking to organisations and hiring managers, they have a strong appetite for digital fluency,” she said.
“The adoption of technology, the adoption of AI, and when you haven’t grown up with it and you have to learn it… there is a perception that the older, more experienced worker has not got some of those skill sets.”
For Bob Epps he has now settled into a chief executive role leading a taxi service in Cairns, proving he’s still got some mileage left.