I am a 52-year-old woman with 30 years of executive-level experience in the fashion and publishing industries, but after 16 months out of work and numerous unsuccessful job applications, I have come to realise that there is a deep-rooted age bias in the UK recruitment process. Automated screening systems and AI tools are a significant part of the problem, but ageism extends well beyond the technology: it shapes how CVs are read, which candidates are shortlisted, who is invited to interview, and who ever receives a response at all. 

We are urging the government to tighten regulation of the recruitment industry — addressing both the unregulated use of AI tools that unfairly discriminate against middle-aged and older workers, and the wider hiring practices that allow age bias to go unchecked at every stage.  Currently, only 10% of recruitment companies are members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the industry's professional body, whose standards of conduct are voluntary. Thousands of agencies operate in the UK entirely outside any such oversight. Because there is no legal requirement to track age-related data, these companies cannot be held legally accountable for age-related hiring bias.

In a recruitment landscape with few barriers to entry, many recruitment companies no longer respond to job applicants, and ghosting midlife applicants has devastating unintended consequences. This is not only a personal tragedy for those affected; it is an enormous cost to the country. A large and growing segment of the population — experienced, skilled, and willing to work — is being locked out of employment. That means lost productivity for businesses, lost tax revenue for the Treasury, and greater pressure on welfare and pension systems, precisely at the moment the government is asking people to work longer. No economy can afford to waste decades of accumulated expertise on this scale. It is imperative for the government to urgently regulate the recruitment process — including, but not limited to, AI-automated screening. 

Many midlife women feel completely demoralised by a hiring process designed to screen them out. With the state pension age now pushed back to 67, many women find themselves in precarious financial situations. On social media, via direct messages, I have received several notes from women expressing that they have contemplated taking their own lives.  This is urgent. 

Thank you for reading,

Stacey