Valérie Gruau

Valérie Gruau

The employment rate among 55-64-year-olds has risen sharply. We went from 31.0% in 2000 to 61.7% in 2025, according to Dares. That is a positive development, essentially driven by the later retirement age. However, age remains one of the main factors of discrimination in recruitment. If you lose your job after 50, it becomes much harder to find another one, and that is even more true after 55. Older workers also remain unemployed for much longer than other age groups. The average duration of unemployment for people aged 50 and over is 584 days, compared with 309 days for those aged 26-49. Looking back, I would say that companies are keeping employees considered to be older workers in employment for longer. By contrast, recruitment practices have barely changed. Companies still have not really taken action when it comes to hiring people over 55. The barriers and prejudices persist, and those that existed in 2008 are unfortunately still very much present in 2026.

Valérie Gruau

I think the age at which a candidate starts to encounter difficulties finding another job has changed very little in twenty years. When I created the website https://www.seniorsavotreservice.com in 2008, the entry threshold for candidates was 50 and, fairly quickly, at the request of new users, we lowered it to 45. Even today, in some sectors, you can already come up against the age barrier at 45. But if we want to look at the positive side, the 45-year-old barrier of 2008 has broadly shifted to around 50 in 2026.

There is also clearly a gap between the age until which society asks us to work and the age at which the labour market is willing to hire. We are being asked to work later and later, and I think we have little choice but to work longer, given that life expectancy has increased and our demographic curve is ageing. Yet companies still have far too many prejudices today that slow down, or clearly prevent, the recruitment of people once they have crossed the 50-year threshold. It is as if, from a certain age onwards, you were no longer capable of working, when in fact that is precisely the point at which, beyond your professional expertise and work experience, you have many behavioural qualities to bring to a company. These are genuine sources of added value for businesses.

Valérie Gruau

Ageism is all of the things you have just listed at once. It is precisely the idea that, from a certain age, we are no longer mobile, that we are overqualified, that we cost too much, that we will not stay in the role long enough, that we will be difficult to manage or that we are not comfortable with new technologies. All of those prejudices prevent recruitment and, when you examine each of them closely, you realise that they are in fact completely unfounded.

Take AI as an example: the leadership and cognitive skills of older workers are ideally suited to supervising and supporting AI projects. Critical thinking, among other things, is a pivotal cognitive skill that older workers master and that is essential when using AI. The companies that succeed will therefore be those that know how to combine AI, experience and new generations by encouraging multigenerational teams.

Ultimately, the problem is not age; it is our perception of age that needs to change.

As for small businesses, when they recruit part-time, they are likely to be interested in older workers, and particularly retirees. They know that retirees are mainly looking for additional income and are no longer seeking full-time employment. A part-time role will therefore appeal to them and they will genuinely commit over the long term. They are not taking that kind of job by default. It is a real choice and a genuine commitment on their part. Small businesses also benefit from the experience, expertise, agility and autonomy of these older profiles.

Valérie Gruau

In recruitment, ageism begins well before the interview. It starts with CV selection. It is enough to specify “a maximum of ten years’ experience” in an algorithm’s selection criteria for an older candidate’s CV never to reach a recruiter’s desk. It is also true that many managers are uncomfortable with the idea of managing people the same age as their father or mother and often rule those profiles out immediately. Yet within companies, we see that multigenerational teams are much more effective than teams made up of identical profiles. People learn from one another. That is why it is essential to train managers and recruiters to understand the factors that drive discrimination.

A private household employer will see age as an advantage. Entrusting a child or an elderly parent who is losing their independence to someone who brings life experience in addition to professional experience can be reassuring. There is a strong element of trust involved.

A small-business recruiter will see immediate autonomy, acquired know-how, availability — because at 50 people may have fewer day-to-day family constraints than at 30 —, long-term commitment — someone over 50 who finds a job after what is often a long period of unemployment is likely to invest in it over time because they know how difficult the labour market can be —, and the ability to become operational immediately.

Valérie Gruau

There is a real problem when it comes to training. Insee-Dares data confirm that access to training declines with age: in 2022, 35% of 55-64-year-olds had taken part in at least one training activity during the year and 24% had taken part in non-formal job-related training.

Training is nevertheless essential and a real asset for the employability of older workers — and, in fact, for every age group. It is a genuine lever that companies need to use, but employees must also remain active participants in their own professional plans.

The world of work is changing quickly: new technologies, changing occupations, new organisational models… For employees aged 50 and over, continuing to train is an excellent way to remain in control of their professional path.

Training makes it possible to develop new skills, become familiar with digital tools, and also enhance the expertise acquired over the years.

For companies, investing in the training of experienced employees also means choosing to preserve their skills and prepare for the future.

After 50, training can also be an opportunity to develop one’s professional plans, consider a career change or move towards new assignments that are better aligned with one’s skills, aspirations and the realities of the later stages of a career.

Because employability should not have an expiry date, training at any age is a genuine lever for staying in the game… and continuing to build one’s professional future.

Valérie Gruau

Yes. The working-age candidates registered on Seniors à votre Service, from age 45 up to retirement age, are there to find a job in the conventional sense, whereas retirees are mainly looking for additional income, generally through part-time work.

Among retirees, the main motivation remains financial. The idea is genuinely to supplement their income. But very often it is also linked to the need to preserve social ties, to feel active and useful, while obviously being able to choose how much time they devote to work. Since 2008, the main motivation has always been financial: a small pension, the need to help an elderly parent who is losing their independence or a child looking for a first job, or the desire to maintain the same purchasing power they had while working. Retirement often comes with a drop in income, although the extent of that decline varies considerably depending on career history and salary level.

There is one difference in 2026 compared with 2008: the need to remain useful and preserve social ties is much stronger and now adds to the main economic motivation. In 2008, that aspect was more anecdotal.

Valérie Gruau

The Seniors à votre Service model is based on direct contact between candidates and recruiters and does not involve either human pre-selection or AI pre-selection. It is also important to point out that recruiters do not come to a platform called Seniors à votre Service by chance. They come precisely because they are looking for a mature, experienced profile — someone who has already faced complex situations and knows how to respond. The platform https://www.seniorsavotreservice.com/ brings together only candidates aged over 45 and retirees. On the platform itself, age is therefore not a criterion for exclusion.

By contrast, on some platforms or through applicant tracking systems used by recruiters with career websites, the selection algorithm or digital screening tool can become a real barrier for older candidates. They can be filtered out automatically and never reach a recruiter’s or manager’s desk because of criteria or biases built into the tool.

Valérie Gruau

In reality, several actions need to be taken at the same time.

There is still an enormous amount of awareness-raising work to be done on non-discrimination within companies in order to train recruiters and managers and break down the prejudices that still exist around profiles over 50. You do not become obsolete overnight. Today, the problem is not age itself; it is the way we, in France, look at age.

That perception, full of prejudices and cognitive biases, remains particularly pronounced in France, even though ageism also exists in our European neighbours. We were clearly led to believe that we could work less and less over the course of our lives through the 35-hour week, retirement at 60 and early-retirement schemes in the late 1990s, among other things. Yet our demographic curve should lead us to rethink the way we work, in the best possible conditions, across all generations and over the long term.

If there is one point we must not neglect, it is training. Too little training is still undertaken after 50. Yet training throughout one’s career makes it possible to develop new skills and preserve employability, whether to remain in the same role, move into other functions or retrain. We now know that we will not necessarily spend our whole working life doing the same job, so we might as well anticipate that reality.

Companies need to be encouraged to see experience not as a perceived risk but as a lever for performance. Some companies have only recently started to work on managing the later stages of careers, no longer just three years before retirement but as part of a genuine long-term career plan, and that includes training. It is a positive step that now needs to be strengthened and generalised across companies.

In short, we need to make rapid progress both on keeping people in employment by developing their skills and on preventing discrimination in recruitment after 50.