Age bias is a luxury companies only get away with when there is a real wealth of candidates. Fla. After decades of owning and operating big hotels in south Florida, he wasn't ready for the tennis courts and bridge games. So, instead of retiring, the septuagenarian immediately went to work as a vice president of sales and marketing for Lynn University in Boca Raton. Older workers were hardest hit by the white-collar recession of the early 1990s. The labor supply has become tight, recruiting experts say.
Numbers tell the overall story.
This year, older Americans are getting new jobs at an annual rate of 4.1 percent - more than double the 1.8 percent for the overall population. This older group of Americans makes up only 10 percent of the work force but they account for 22 percent of nation's job growth since 1995. For companies, seasoned pros offer reliability and maturity at a time when qualified professionals are hard to find. All of a sudden they've become popular again. Gone is the era when employees stayed with one company for decades.