Patricia Cohen at The New York Times is reporting on the issue of age bias in hiring [nytimes.com] in the United States.
In today's (7 June 2019) article, Ms. Cohen writes:
MADISON, Ala. — Across the United States, mammoth corporations and family businesses share a complaint: a shortage of workers. As the unemployment rate has tunneled its way to a half-century low, employers insist they must scramble to lure applicants.
The shadow of age bias in hiring, though, is long. Tens of thousands of workers say that even with the right qualifications for a job, they are repeatedly turned away because they are over 50, or even 40, and considered too old.
The problem is getting more scrutiny after revelations that hundreds of employers shut out middle-aged and older Americans in their recruiting on Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms. Those disclosures are supercharging a wave of litigation.
But as cases make their way to court, the legal road for proving age discrimination, always difficult, has only roughened. Recent decisions by federal appeals courts in Chicago and Atlanta have limited the reach of anti-discrimination protections and made it even harder for job applicants to win.
It certainly seems like many of us here (myself included) are on the older side, what sort of experiences do Soylentils have with the current job market? Have you experienced age bias? If so, what (if anything) did you do about it? Are you more or less able to find work that meets your skill level and/or financial needs?
Is it appropriate to prefer younger workers? If so, why?
Here's a 2018 report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [eeoc.gov] about age bias and the Age Discrimination In Employment Act [wikipedia.org], signed into law in 1967.