The American job market still looks healthy from a distance. In June, unemployment stood at 4.2 percent, and employers reported 7.6 million job openings in May. Yet those broad figures conceal a harsher market for many professionals in their 40s and 50s. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted nearly 1.7 million unemployed people between 45 and 64 in June, and roughly half of the unemployed in each of those age groups had been searching for 15 weeks or longer.
Experience becomes a disadvantage when employers translate it into cost, rigidity, or flight risk. AARP found that 74 percent of older adults believe age would be a barrier to getting a new job, while 37 percent of workers age 50 and older reported subtle age discrimination during a job search in 2025. Federal law protects workers beginning at age 40, but a legal protection does not automatically remove bias from a résumé screen or interview decision.
Candidates cannot control every stereotype, but they can reduce the number of unanswered questions an employer is allowed to fill with one: present a current business case rather than a career history, make recent currency visible, and search through relationships rather than relying almost entirely on online applications. At Stottly Enterprises, we believe experienced professionals are most persuasive when they translate tenure into faster judgment, stronger pattern recognition, and fewer expensive mistakes.
Employers also need to examine what they are discarding. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warns that hiring based on age stereotypes is unlawful, and that even neutral practices can create prohibited harm when they disproportionately exclude workers over 40 without a reasonable basis.