Research released by economics professor David Neumark at the University of California, Irvine noted that workers over 40 are only about half as likely, or less, to get a job offer than younger workers if employers know their age.
When managers could determine an applicant’s age group, those over 40 were between 46% and 65% less likely to get a job offer than those under 40.
This is by no means the first study to show age discrimination. Previous research has also shown that managers show bias, unconscious or otherwise, against older workers.
A lot of workers over 50 are looking for opportunities to continue working and being productive, separate research from the progressive Economic Policy Institute, a labor policy think tank, concluded. The share of people working outside of Corporate America who were ages 55 to 64 increased to 22.9% in 2017 from 18.8% in 2005. For people aged 65 and older, the figure rose to 14.1% from 8.5%.
For some older people, independent contracting and/or Franchise ownership are attractive ways to extend ones working relationship within society and to earn income after they have left the full-time workforce. The difference being that Franchise companies participate in the success of individuals looking to build a future for themselves versus on your own as an independent contractor.
Meanwhile, data from a recent Gallup nationally representative survey program found that formal employment rates plunge once people enter their 50s, but self-employment rates skyrocket. That’s based on surveys with 61,000 people conducted between May 2018 and March 2019 as part of the Gallup Education Consumer Pulse Survey. About two-thirds of those surveyed were over 50.
About a quarter of those still working age 55 to 59 are self-employed, according to a separate analysis conducted by researchers Katharine Abraham, an economics professor at the University of Maryland, and Brad Hershbein and Susan Houseman at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
“Roughly one-quarter of those self employed age 50 and older work for a former employer,” they added. This raises the issue that they have been shuffled out of the door as a result of their age — or simply to get them off the company health plan before they start costing too much money. Among those over 50 working as “independent contractors,” most told Gallup they were doing it mainly because they need the money.
Being self-employed can go both ways, experts agree. Most of those who own their own businesses like being their own boss, the researchers said, and many who work as independent contractors prefer it to full-time employment, especially because of the flexibility it may give them
What you can do now.
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