Too old to hire? These Americans lost their jobs at 60

Cynthia Hennessy hit some low points after getting laid off from her corporate lawyer position in 2024, at age 61. The lowest probably came when she was rejected for a job driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

"When you are laid off, you can’t help but feel it’s because you aren’t any good, not smart enough, not talented," she said.

There’s no good time to lose your job. But there may be no worse time than around age 60.

At that age, workers are close enough to retirement that no prospective employer is likely to hire them expecting a long-term relationship.

"They may find themselves trapped between being too old to hire and too young to retire," said Catherine Collinson, CEO of the nonprofit Transamerica Institute.

And what age is "too old" to get a good job? When the Transamerica Institute asked that question in a 2023 survey of employers, most companies replied diplomatically that it "depends on the person." But some employers acknowledged age bias in hiring. The median age they gave as too old to hire: 58.

When Transamerica posed the same question in 2025, employers gave an older age as "too old to hire": 65. The real number…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/money/