I'm not sure if I've been through it personally, but I definitely agree it exists. I am about your age. The last time I was job hunting was about 3 years ago. It took me 6 months to get an offer and I had to start off as freelance before getting a real contract and benefits. I got few calls for interviews. I am fortunatel I look young for my age, but in this country you are supposed to include your birth date on your resume. People say for women, 45 is when it seems to kick in here. So, maybe in some cases I didn't get called in for an interview due to age.



It is scary when you consider that at this age we need to be saving as much as possible for retirement. And, now, many governments want to raise the retirement age or have already it. Who is going to want to hire someone at 65, 67? As the article said many people never find a stable job after being laid off in their 50s.

I have a friend who is quite a bit older than me. She was laid off in the financial crisis in the US in 2009. She was 60, but a "young" 60 I guess you could say. She was in good health, energetic and a hard worker. She had planned to put off retirement to 67 or 68 to improve her Social Security benefits and increase her savings. However, she never was able to find another job. She took unemployment benefits for as long as she could and she had some severance pay to live on. Fortunately, at that time the time to receive unemployment benefits had been extended due to the recession. Once those and the severance ran out, she had to go on Social Security much earlier than she had planned, with a lower benefit.