Age restrictions: half of pensioners are denied employment
In about 45% of cases, people of retirement and pre-retirement age are denied employment, analysts told Izvestia. However, HR services noted that just half of employers regularly consider candidates for experienced applicants, but 31% — only from time to time and for individual positions. Employers refuse people, in particular, because of their age, but this is illegal, the experts interviewed noted. The problems of employing such employees are described in the Izvestia article.
Age as a hindrance
In 45% of cases, people 55 years of age and older face job refusals. The main reason is age. However, this problem is more common for women. They face rejections due to age in 34% of cases, men — in 30%, analysts of the online recruiting platform told Izvestia. hh.ru .
— Pensioners and pre-retirees make up a significant and active part of the Russian labor market. Despite their desire to work, they face systemic challenges — age discrimination, low salaries offered, and geographically limited vacancies," said Maria Ignatova, Director of the research service.
In the first half of 2025, 14,000 pensioners applied to employment centers, 44% of whom have already found work, the Federal Service for Labor and Employment (Rostrud) told Izvestia. The work of the specialists of the employment centers continues with the rest of the citizens.
In 2024, 32.5 thousand pensioners applied to employment centers, in 2023 - 46 thousand pensioners. 62% and 67% of them found a job, respectively.
According to the job search service SuperJob, today every second company employs employees of retirement age on a general basis, another 31% considers them from time to time or for separate positions. The loyalty of employers to retired applicants increased by 5% over the year, analysts noted. In conditions of personnel shortage, removing barriers to hiring is the right tactic.
"Today, employers are trying to keep retired employees from leaving the company: one in four organizations reported that the practice of retaining employees of retirement age has been in effect for a long time, and one in ten employers began to apply such measures only recently," the service said.
They stressed that age discrimination in employment is illegal.
— It is forbidden to specify age requirements in vacancies, — the service explained.
Currently, the unemployment rate is at a minimum of 2.2%, Vladimir Smirnov, Acting General Director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Labor, told Izvestia.
— In these conditions, the overall situation on the labor market is in favor of the applicant. The need for personnel increases the chances of employment for all categories of applicants," he stressed.
According to the expert, the labor force participation rate has increased in recent years for all age groups, including people of pre-retirement and retirement age.
— If you draw such a personal portrait of a working pensioner, then these are professors and university professors, artistic directors of creative teams and doctors, experienced engineers and skilled workers, — said Vladimir Smirnov. —Such people, as a rule, keep their jobs and continue to work after retirement.
According to him, the situation of finding work on the open market at an older age is rather an exception, and most often such cases are complicated by a combination of circumstances. For example, retirement or a long break.
To mitigate these risks, older people can receive free retraining and advanced training in 360 sought-after professions within the framework of the national project "Personnel" and free assistance from career consultants in the personnel centers "Work of Russia".
What difficulties do pensioners face?
People 55 years and older in most cases cannot get a job that involves high concentration of attention and requires a quick reaction, said Natalia Kretova, a career consultant.
— With age, "the eye is no longer the same," and the employer is responsible for observing safe labor standards. And if it is difficult for a person to do a job, it means that he should retrain and get a new specialty in which he can continue his career," she said.
According to the analytical center of the National Agency for Financial Research (NAFI), older people have low digital literacy compared to younger ones.
"In terms of information literacy, the older generation more often has gaps in the ability to search, store and process the necessary information, and verify its accuracy," the authors of the study note. — In the field of communication literacy, it is difficult for Russians over the age of 55 to work with documents online — they do not fully understand how cloud services work. The topic of creating digital content captures difficulties with editing texts and tables, as well as working with audio and video materials."
In the field of digital security, the most difficult issues to test were those related to the protection of personal data and the impact of digital technologies on human health. And in the digital problem solving block, the average scores on almost all topics are relatively low, but the most problematic topic turned out to be related to the organization of training and attitudes towards the continuous expansion of one's own knowledge in the field of digital technologies.
Despite the difficulties that arise, the vast majority of people of retirement age are interested in continuing their work, analysts said. hh.ru . According to them, the main reasons why people are interested in continuing to work after retirement are lack of money and unwillingness to stay at home. Less often — the absence of other able-bodied people in the family.
But problems with employment also arise in other age groups, for example, among young people aged 18-24 and 25-34, the analysts emphasized. The reasons are the low level of salaries offered by companies, high competition among applicants, as well as limited choice of jobs based on geographical location and transport accessibility, and lack of transparency in working conditions.
How in demand are employees of retirement age
In 2023-2025, Rostrud did not receive complaints from pensioners about refusals to work because of their age. They recalled that every citizen has equal opportunities to exercise their labor rights.
"No one may be restricted in their labor rights and freedoms or receive any benefits, regardless of gender, race, skin color, nationality, language, origin, property, social and official status, age, place of residence, religious beliefs, political beliefs, membership or non-membership in public associations, as well as from other circumstances unrelated to the employee's business qualities," the service said.
They also stressed that when posting vacancies on the unified digital platform in the field of employment and labor relations "Work in Russia", when specifying the requirements for a candidate for a vacancy, the employer does not have the right to set age restrictions. And persons who believe that they have been discriminated against in the field of work have the right to apply to the court for restoration of violated rights, compensation for material damage and compensation for moral damage.
Natalia Kretova confirmed that recently there have been significantly fewer refusals to candidates due to their age, even if disguised as other reasons, compared to 2024.
"This is explained by the shortage of human resources in the labor market in general and the level of qualifications of young professionals in particular," she said. — I'm not saying that young specialists are bad. The point is that professionals are not born, they become professionals.
At the same time, according to the expert, it can be difficult for "adult" candidates to establish communication with young colleagues. And the difference in communication patterns of behavior can also be the reason for rejection.
What professions are in demand for pensioners?
Most often, Russians of retirement age have vacancies in industries facing the greatest shortage of labor, such as drivers, skilled workers, engineers, sellers and storekeepers, SuperJob told Izvestia.
Male pensioners are more likely to apply for security guards, drivers, couriers, engineering and technical workers and skilled workers. Women post resumes for positions such as nurse, salesperson, janitor, accountant or packer, they added.
Pensioners are in high demand in professions that do not require complex skills, said Olga Zakharova, Deputy director of the marketing department at the human resources company Unity. At the same time, according to her, many older people remain active, play sports and constantly study.
— Perhaps not all employers are ready to consider an age-old candidate for production due to stereotypes that a person will not be ready for hard and strenuous work, but this is very conditional. We had candidates who were ready to work in difficult production areas, warehouses, and building materials stores. Many were in good physical shape," she added.
The expert also noted that employers often consider age candidates with experience in the fields of personnel administration, accounting, finance and education.
People of retirement age are ready to share their knowledge and skills, but they expect employers to increase their salaries, introduce a corporate pension program and expand the VMI, taking into account age characteristics, Maria Ignatova emphasized.
Currently, representatives of five generations can work in one team at once, which means that care and attention should be directed to each of them, depending on the needs of these workers, the expert noted.
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