What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers?

Research has shown that hiring discrimination is a barrier for older job candidates in many OECD countries. However, little research has delved into why these job candidates face discrimination. Therefore, we have con-ducted an online scenario experiment involving recruiters to empirically investigate 15 potential stigmas related to older age drawn from a systematic review of the literature. We found that older age particularly signals to recruiters that the applicant has lower technological skills, flexibility, and trainability levels. Together, these per-ceptions explain about 41% of the effect of age on the probability of being invited to a job interview. Additionally, we found that the negative association between age and the invitation to interview probability is smaller when recruiters work for firms with a higher percentage of older employees.