Age limits in ads surveyed
More than a quarter of job advertisements in a recent survey required applicants aged 45 and under
Date:
01 June 1988
Source:
Page:
103
More than a quarter of job advertisements in a recent survey required applicants aged 45 and under, indicating that recruiters still have not got the message on age discrimination.
Nearly 11,500 advertisements were analysed in the Sunday Times, Personnel Management and four London ‘free’ magazines: Nine to Five, Girl About Town, Ms London and Midweek by Equal Opportunities Review.
It found that nearly a third of job advertisements in the Sunday times included an age preference, 23.9 per cent of those in Personnel Management and 23.7 per cent of those in the free weeklies.
There were wide variations in the ages specified within the three groups. In the London-based free magazines, which feature clerical, secretarial and administrative vacancies, virtually all of the age requirements were for those aged 35 or less. This contrasts with the Sunday Times, where only 49.9 per cent of the ads specifying age limited it to those under 35. In Personnel Management the figure was 71.9 per cent.
Despite these findings there are signs that the incidence of age being specified in advertisements is declining. When Peter Naylor of the IPM’s standing committee on equal opportunities analysed job advertisements in Personnel Management and the Sunday Times during 1986 and 1987 he found higher levels of age discrimination – 41 per cent in the Sunday Times and 32 per cent in Personnel Management.
Both surveys, however, showed that the main culprits were organisations in the private sector. The Equal Opportunities Review survey reveals that fewer than 1 per cent of discriminatory ads were placed by public sector employers.