People over 40 have difficulty finding a good job. Age becomes an insignificant barrier to employment if you can conduct a well-organized search and are prepared to handle this potential negative with employers. Experience is a positive and valuable asset to a company and must be communicated as such. Hiring managers will benefit from your knowledge, maturity, and stability. The difficulty for most job seekers is the inability to get through the screening process to talk to the decision maker.
Executive recruiters make their money finding jobs for people.
This is a common misconception. Recruiters are hired by companies only when their Human Resource Department has been unsuccessful in finding suitable candidates for positions. The recruiter is paid by, and works for, the client company. Their responsibility is to the client company, not the job seeker. A recruiter's livelihood depends on marketing his service to companies and securing search contracts.