Why do many companies have age restrictions on recruitment?

Recently, it has been found that many enterprises have set an "upper age limit" of 30 when recruiting, and many job seekers lament: "The crisis of the 35-year-old middle-aged workplace has advanced."

This inevitably raises questions. Is the setting of "age threshold" really reasonable?

30 years of "employment crisis"

After graduating from junior college, Yang Lihua has been working in the clothing and fast-moving consumer goods industries as a clerk and supervisor. He told reporters that most of the employees in this industry are young people in their early 20 s, and their mobility is relatively large. He has changed jobs many times before, but in the past two years, there are fewer and fewer positions he can choose.

A village bank in Changchun recruits a retail account manager, who is required to be under 30 years old (inclusive); An information technology company in Shanghai recruits personnel specialists, who are required to be under 30 years old; A digital technology company in Jinan needs to be under the age of 30 to recruit administrative assistants ... On major online recruitment platforms, the reporter saw that many companies regard 30 as the "age threshold" when recruiting.

Bailey from Jiangxi is 3 1 year old this year. When she was looking for a job, she was turned away because of the "age red line".

Bailey set himself a job target of 5000 yuan a month, which can be used on both weekends. Previously, she interviewed the sales positions of children's wear and women's wear in a shopping mall, all of which ended in failure.

Bailey told reporters that the interviewer of a women's clothing store clearly stated that "the sales in the store should be within 27 years old", and the operation director of a clothing store revealed to her that "if you are over 35 years old, you will not be able to enter the interview at all".

"Whether it is online job hunting or offline talent market, it is obvious that employers are increasingly demanding age." Yang Lihua told reporters that he has a small family, and now he just wants to find a job as soon as possible to ease the pressure of mortgage and raising a baby.

How did "age anxiety" come about?

Why do companies prefer young labor when recruiting?

Tian, a senior human resources manager of a manufacturing enterprise, told the reporter that for some labor-intensive jobs, enterprises will worry that older employees can't keep up physically and can't stay up all night, while young people are self-motivated and can achieve better performance without family constraints. Married middle-aged people with children are "uneconomical" in the eyes of enterprises.

Tian also pointed out that especially in some emerging industries, especially the internet industry, the skills and experience gained at work are not the most important for enterprises. Creativity and innovation based on new knowledge and technology are more important, and the way to improve vocational skills is not entirely accumulated by time.

Hu Yufei, a 27-year-old programmer, knows this very well.

The turmoil in this industry was affected by the epidemic. He has been looking for a job for almost three years after graduation. From Xi to Nanjing and now to Wuhan, he has changed three jobs. In every internet company where he works, youthfulness is the key word of recruitment, and the management is almost all around 35 years old.

He has a clear "red line" in his heart-if he is still typing in the front line at the age of 35, it will be dangerous and easy to be eliminated.

In the interview, the reporter found that more and more people in the workplace will have "age anxiety" around the age of 30-they are worried that they will face the crisis of being eliminated in their existing posts and will be blocked again because they are "older".

Previously, the Employment Research Report of Middle-aged and Old Job-seekers published on the recruitment website also pointed out that in industries that put forward higher requirements for practitioners' self-knowledge updating ability, middle-aged and old job-seekers engaged in standard operation or transactional work are easily replaced by young professionals or artificial intelligence.

Incorporate age discrimination into the scope of anti-employment discrimination

Experts interviewed said that taking age as the recruitment threshold will have a negative impact on workers, employers and social development.

Zhang Yanhua, an associate professor at China Institute of Labor Relations, analyzed that age discrimination is unfair to workers and is not conducive to their long-term career development; For enterprises, discriminatory employment may keep the truly capable labor force out of the enterprise. Once workers cannot enter the workplace smoothly, it will reduce the labor supply, lead to labor shortage and increase labor costs; For social development, under the background of gradual disappearance of demographic dividend and aging population, it is not conducive to the rational development and full utilization of social human resources, and it will also cause waste of human resources.

"According to the labor law, workers enjoy equal employment and the right to choose a career. The Employment Promotion Law also stipulates that employers and professional intermediaries engaged in professional intermediary activities must provide equal employment opportunities and fair employment conditions to workers, and may not implement various employment discrimination. " Wang Yuqi, lawyer of Guangdong Guanghe (Changchun) Law Firm, said.

Although age discrimination is not explicitly listed as employment discrimination in relevant laws and regulations, it leaves room for anti-age discrimination in employment.

Wang Yuqi further explained that the labor law lists anti-employment discrimination in a closed way, and opposes discrimination based on different nationalities, races, genders and religious beliefs. The Employment Promotion Law adds the word "equality" to the above four articles, which means that the openness of anti-employment discrimination is recognized.

Wang Yuqi also suggested that in addition to the ability of workers to learn and constantly "update" their skills, enterprises should also take the initiative to undertake social responsibilities and provide vocational training for employees. At the national level, positive employment promotion policies should also be introduced to guide employers not to take age as the threshold in recruitment through vocational training and social security subsidies.