OLDER people face significant prejudice when trying to gain entry into the workplace, new research has found. 

Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University sent 894 pairs of applications to firms with a variety of vacancies, one from a fictitious 28-year-old white British male, the other from a fictitious 50-year-old white British male. 

They found that the older white British applicant was 21.9 per cent less likely to be invited for interview when compared to the younger man for a variety of positions in white-collar, pink-collar (restaurants, sales) and blue-collar fields.

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Researchers sought to minimise the stereotyping of older applicants as less active, less motivated and less adaptable than younger workers by ensuring their background information contained physical hobbies like cycling and mountain biking and interests that demonstrated mental flexibility like learning foreign languages and working with computers.

The study was carried out alongside a similar experiment with 898 pairs of applications being filled out on behalf of two fictitious black British males of similar ages.

The older black British applicant was 24 per cent less likely to get an interview compared to the younger black British applicant, suggesting that applicants of minority race encounter higher levels of ageism than those from the majority race.

In each study the older applicant also received interviews for lower-paid positions. The older white British applicant was invited for interview for vacancies offering 9.9 per cent lower wages than the younger white British jobseeker. 

In the parallel study, the older black applicant was offered interviews for positions paying 15.7 per cent less than jobs for which the younger applicant was invited to interview for.

Dr Nick Drydakis, reader in Economics at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Our results suggest that ageism plays a significant role in the UK labour market.

“We find that older people must apply to more vacancies than the young to obtain an interview. Furthermore, older workers are invited to interview for lower-paid jobs, potentially affecting their standard of living.”

He added that prejudice still exists despite legislation designed to level the playing field across all range of ages.

Dr Drydakis said: “Our data were collected after the Equality Act 2010 was enacted.

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“That we still find compelling evidence of ageism suggests that legislation has not been sufficient to eliminate age discrimination. 

“In this study, because we have controlled for the older applicants’ mental and physical capacities, simple prejudice against people aged over 50 is likely to be the reason for ageism.”