According to a Bloomberg analysis, Generation Xers in the US are working more today than ever before. Employment rates in the 50-64 age group have reached historic highs and remain high despite the cooling economic situation. Importantly, the employment of 60-year-olds was growing even before the pandemic, although the size of this group was also increasing.
There are three factors behind the trend:
- Demography: the number of Americans 50+ decreased by approximately 5 million compared to 2016, which strengthened their position on the market.
- Pandemic: mass departures of people aged 65+ revealed how difficult it is to replace experience and organizational memory.
- Technology: growing investments in automation and AI have increased the need for stability and predictability of longer-term employees
However, this boom in professional activity does not translate into clear financial benefits. The median earnings of people aged 45–54 do not show a significant wage premium. Many fifty-year-olds move to more flexible but lower-paid positions. There is hard arithmetic in the background: private pension systems, rising medical costs and the fact that as many as 28 percent Gen Xers have no savings for retirement.
In Poland, the trend is similar – employees 50+ stay on the market longer mainly out of necessity. However, their professional position is much weaker than in the USA.
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How does the approach to employees over 50 change?
— In many Western European countries, people with long service and extensive experience are protected in restructuring processes. Younger players are often dismissed, and the “last in, first out” principle acts as a fuse for older teams. In the Netherlands or Germany, no one is surprised by a manager over 70 who leads a team and is an authority for the rest – says Anna Kielisiak, an EFQM assessor with many years of experience in international organizations.
However, he admits that the situation is different in the case of recruitment. It is here, regardless of the country, that the most worn-out stereotypes are most quickly revived: that a person 50+ is less flexible, less efficient, less motivated or simply “more difficult” to cooperate with. In the case of women, there is an additional layer of prejudice, with menopause being treated as an alleged “occupational risk.”
Nicolas Bechu, COO of PageGroup, sees it similarly. In his opinion The European labor market is still burdened with a strong prejudice against candidates 50+who are often considered less adaptive.
– This is a mistake. This generation has gone through a huge amount of change and has proven time and time again that it can adapt – emphasizes Bechu and adds that it is today's 50-year-olds who have gone through the greatest technological revolutions at work – from faxes and paper CVs to digital recruitment, remote work and AI.
Read also: Generation 50+ on the labor market: companies want to employ them, but they cannot
Labor market in Poland? After fifty, everything changes
Today, the Polish labor market operates in two parallel narratives. Publicly – campaigns, reports and conferences about the “silver economy”. In practice – recruitment in which age is still often an informal elimination criterion.
Data from the “(In)visible Workers 2026” report by the HRM Institute show that there is a clear turning point among Polish employees over 45 years of age: while among people up to 44 years of age, the percentage of those who believe that it is more difficult to find a job at their age does not exceed 40%.then in the 45-49 age group it increases to 73 percent, and in the 50-59 and 60+ groups it already reaches 86-88 percent.
The study also clearly shows that with age the tendency to self-select is growing: in the 50-59 age group, 34 percent did not apply for the position due to age.
The market recognizes the problem, but this does not translate into a change in practices. Only 14 percent companies use the practice of “blind CV”, i.e. they remove dates of birth and photos from application documents at the first stage of selection. Systemic solutions are also insufficient.
Read also: The 40-year-old sent 500 CVs in a year. It's hard to believe how many companies responded
Control instead of effects. Polish team management model
In Poland, the issue of the legal age is still a barrier. However, as Anna Kielisiak points out, the dispute over 50+ employees is actually not only about age, but also about whether companies can manage experience at all and whether they look at the organization holistically.
In her opinion The Polish version of management is still based mainly on control: what matters is whether someone is sitting at the desk, whether they are “visible” and whether they obediently returned to the office. In many European countries, flexibility, accountability for results and assessment of work efficiency, rather than time spent in open space, are becoming the standard.
— In Poland, the protective age is becoming more a projection of managers' fears than a real problem with “demanding 50-year-olds.” Where leaders know their teams well, work on data, make decisions based on facts and support people in crises, the scenario of a “56+ employee at ease” simply does not materialize.
Read also: Older employees have the competences of the future. Real innovation is a workplace that is friendly to them
A change in strategy and mindset is needed
Nicolas Bechu emphasizes that companies still too often evaluate candidates through the filter of simplified ideas, instead of checking their actual ability to learn, respond to change and the value that a given person brings to the organization.
The paradox is that companies have never talked so much about AI before. Since artificial intelligence takes over more and more simple, repetitive and administrative tasks, the value should increase precisely those competencies that cannot be easily automated: relationality, leadership, critical thinking, a healthy distance from technology and the ability to navigate complex organizational structures.
These are competencies in which employees 50+ have a natural advantage – from relationality and critical thinking to orientation in complex structures and assessment of the quality of AI responses.
Managers often do not know what knowledge they lose when an experienced employee leaves, or how much it actually costs to find a successor. Organizations that still evaluate candidates based on age instead of competence risk losing their competitive advantage.
