PEOPLE | BUSINESS | OPPORTUNITY | RESOURCES | GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Employers Say They Can't Find Qualified Workers. But Are They Looking at the Workers Already Here?
Read the NFIB Small Business Jobs Report
People Are Applying. People Are Interviewing.
Talk to people outside of the reports and surveys, and you'll hear another side of the employment story. Job seekers talk about submitting application after application. Some make it through two or three interviews and still don't receive an offer. Others have decades of experience, degrees, certifications, and long work histories but find themselves struggling to get back into the workforce. That is particularly important when we talk about workers in their late 40s, 50s, 60s, and even 70s who are willing and able to continue working.
AARP's research shows this concern isn't simply anecdotal.
In a 2026 AARP survey, 64% of workers age 50 and older said they had seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace. Nearly a quarter said they felt they were being pushed out of their jobs.
Another AARP survey found 67% of adults 50-plus believed it would be difficult to find a job if they were looking for one today. Among those expecting difficulty, age discrimination was the most frequently cited reason.
Read AARP's 2026 research on older workers and age bias
Maybe We Need to Rethink “Qualified.” Of course, some positions require specific credentials. You cannot simply train someone for every profession. Doctors, nurses, engineers, licensed tradespeople, and many other occupations require specific education, licensing, or technical qualifications, but that's not every job. For many positions, employers are looking for people who can learn the company's systems, show up consistently, communicate, solve problems, and perform the work, and experience should count for something. Especially when an applicant already has 20 or 30 years of experience, the question shouldn't automatically be whether that person knows every piece of new software or every process used by a particular company. The question could be: Can this person learn it?
Employers train younger employees who enter workplaces without decades of experience. Older workers should not automatically be viewed as incapable of learning something new simply because they've been working longer. In fact, AARP research has documented stereotypes about older workers being less comfortable with technology or resistant to change. Federal law also prohibits covered employers from discriminating against applicants and employees 40 and older because of their age, including in hiring and training.
Learn about age discrimination protections from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
AARP Foundation Is Training Older Adults to Return to Work. There's another part of this conversation that deserves attention. The AARP Foundation Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) helps eligible unemployed adults 55 and older with low incomes gain current work experience through paid, on-the-job training with nonprofit organizations and public agencies. This isn't simply a résumé class. Participants get an opportunity to work, learn, and update their skills while earning income. AARP Foundation reported that its SCSEP participants who moved into employment in 2024 entered the workforce three months faster than the previous year's participants, and their average starting wage after the program increased 12% to $15 an hour. That tells us something important. Older adults can learn new skills. They can retrain. And they can return to work.
Find an AARP Foundation SCSEP program
Employers Have a Role in Closing the Gap Too. Training workers is only one side of the equation. Employers also have to be willing to look beyond the picture they may already have in mind when they say they're searching for the “right candidate.” A worker in their 50s or 60s may not have used the exact software your company uses, but that person may have managed employees, dealt with customers, solved problems, met deadlines, worked through economic downturns, and adapted to several generations of technology. A younger applicant may not have that experience yet, but may bring energy, new skills, and a willingness to learn.
There should be room for both. If businesses truly cannot find workers, expanding the pool of people they're willing to seriously consider is one place to start. Because we can't continue saying “nobody wants to work” or “we can't find qualified people” without also asking who is applying, who is getting interviewed, who isn't getting called back, and why. There are people who want to work. There are experienced people who still can work. Some younger people need someone to allow them to gain experience, and there are older adults going back into training programs right now because they're willing to learn something new. Maybe the labor shortage conversation shouldn't only be about where the workers are.
Maybe we also need to ask: Who are employers willing to see as a worker?
Sources & Resources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Situation
NFIB — Small Business Jobs Report
AARP — Older Workers and Age Bias
OCTOBER 2026 — The latest jobs numbers tell us something is happening in America's labor market. But the numbers don't tell the whole story.
The United States added just 29,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, leaving approximately 7.1 million people unemployed.
At the same time, small-business owners continue to say they cannot find the people they need.
According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 51% of small-business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in September. Among those trying to hire, 87% said they found few or no qualified applicants, while 32% of owners reported job openings they could not fill.
So here's the question we should be asking: What exactly do we mean when we say “qualified”?
The latest jobs numbers show hiring is slowing while businesses continue to report difficulty finding qualified workers. But experienced older workers tell another side of the story.
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