Not a question of age: One in ten people omit age information from their application

Press release

Not a question of age: One in ten people omit age information from their application

• 12 percent of people under 34 do not state their age when applying - 9 percent of people over 50 do
• Concern about over- or under-qualification widespread among applicants
• Every second HR manager perceives that applicants over 55 can be considered as “too old”

DUESSELDORF, 8 October 2024 — One in ten applicants in Germany state that they have already omitted or changed their age-related information on an application — for example, their date of birth or length of time at school (18-34 years: 12 percent, 34-49 years: 9 percent, over 50 years: 9 percent). This is the result of a study by the digital recruiting platform The Stepstone Group, for which over 6,500 people were surveyed. It is representative of the working population.

The main reason for being cautious with indications of age: Applicants want to avoid age-specific prejudices (45 percent). A third (35 percent) of 18 to 34-year-olds fear being perceived as underqualified and 20 percent of over-50s want to avoid being automatically excluded from jobs because they could be seen as overqualified or too old (24 percent).

“Even though it is not compulsory to state your age in job applications, it is still common practice in Germany. More and more companies are explicitly not requesting this information — unless, for example, proof of age is required for certain jobs, such as in the police force. But in general, the assumed age can play a decisive role in the application process,” says The Stepstone Group employment market expert Dr. Tobias Zimmermann.

“In just six years, there will be more people of retirement age on the labor market than people under 20. We will need every single person on the labor market in the future. Employers who inspire the youngest and oldest create a strategic advantage for the great labor shortage. They gain both valuable skills and an increase in potential workers in a shrinking labor market.”

Younger people are seen as tech-savvy, older people as particularly reliable

While the HR managers in the study primarily attribute technical expertise (65 percent), reliability (51 percent) and diligence (43 percent) to older applicants, they primarily trust younger applicants to have technical knowledge (55 percent), a willingness to learn (52 percent) and the ability to innovate (45 percent). Older applicants in particular are often concerned about whether they can keep up with technical innovations: One in two recruiters say that older applicants are sometimes not considered because their technical knowledge is doubtful (56 percent) - and around the same number say that they might perceive people aged 55 and over as “too old” for certain positions (50 percent).

“People automatically tend to ascribe special characteristics to people in certain age groups. This makes it more important for everyone to constantly question their own assumptions - and for employers to motivate people to work on perceived weaknesses by offering targeted further training,” says Zimmermann. The chances are good - more than two thirds (69 percent) of people over the age of 50 say that they want to continue their training so that they can stay up to date in their working life.

About the study
The study ‘The Age Advantage: Recruiting without age limits’ sheds light on the experiences and obstacles of age discrimination across all phases of the recruitment process. Data was collected from 6,254 candidates and 725 recruiters between 25 and 31 July 2024 as part of an online survey. The data set was weighted using the micro census and is representative of the German labor force in terms of age, gender and education. In addition, 140,000 CVs on Stepstone were analyzed to assess prejudices against older applicants.

More information about the survey here.
 

About The Stepstone Group 
The Stepstone Group is a leading global digital recruitment platform that connects companies with the right talent and helps people find the right job. AI-driven job marketplaces and programmatic-powered marketing solutions connect more than 130 million job applications with around 140,000 employers every year. In 2023, The Stepstone Group generated revenue of around €1 billion. The Stepstone Group operates in more than 30 countries - including Stepstone in Germany, Appcast in the USA and Totaljobs in the UK. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany and employs around 4,000 people worldwide. For more information: https://www.thestepstonegroup.com/en/

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