Working age: pre-retirees are twice as likely to be called to work

Companies have become more likely to hire citizens over the age of 50. The number of invitations doubled in 2025 to 5 million, Izvestia found out. The reason is the shortage of personnel against the background of the demographic pit and record low unemployment. This is of key importance against the background of the president's statements at the SPIEF on the need to reduce poverty, which is especially high among the elderly — working before retirement, it will be easier for people to save for a decent old age. However, pre-retirees are still more likely to face problems when hiring than younger professionals. What positions they are mostly called for is in the Izvestia article.

How to find a job after 50 years

The number of job invitations sent to applicants over the age of 50 increased by 95% in the first five months of 2025, to 5.1 million. This follows from the data hh.ru , who carried out calculations specifically for Izvestia. However, the share of such invitations in the entire market increased slightly — from 3.6% to 4%. In total, in the first months of 2025, companies sent about 130 million invitations, with about half of them coming from those aged 19 to 30 (42%).

According to the recruitment platform, applicants of pre-retirement age are most often invited to work and service personnel positions in logistics, sales, construction, real estate and manufacturing.

The increased interest in mature candidates was also confirmed by <url>. They are hired as managers and ordinary employees.

According to Izvestia, the All—Russian Research Institute of Labor of the Ministry of Labor, employers are now actively competing for qualified personnel, including older ones. And we are talking not only about new employment, but also about maintaining a job after retirement age. In general, the market situation encourages employers to create optimal conditions for them that correspond to their education and professional experience, the All-Russian Research Institute of Labor added.

The reason for the increased interest of employers in people of pre—retirement age is the shortage of personnel, which was also facilitated by the demographic situation, said Olga Belenkaya, head of the Macroeconomic Analysis Department at Finam.

In addition, there have been more applicants over the age of 50 in recent years. The increase in the number of more mature people in the labor market is due to the peculiarities of pension reform, says Viktor Lyashok, senior researcher at the INSAP Center of the IPEI Presidential Academy. For example, in 2024, those who could have counted on it in 2021 without the reform began to receive a pension.

Why are workers of pre-retirement age better than young ones

Previously, employers preferred younger specialists, because there were enough offers on the labor market, while they did not require large remuneration, Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets, Associate professor of the Basic Department of Human Resource Management at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, pointed out. Now the choice is not so great and, accepting young workers, it is necessary to spend money on training and adaptation, while experienced specialists do not need this.

Now employers are interested in retaining those employees who have reached the new retirement age, and in industries with the most acute personnel shortages, they even return workers who have already retired, Viktor Lyashok added.

— If it was difficult to find a job after the age of 40, now people over the age of 50 have a better chance of finding a job. If there is a demand for their competencies, then there is a desire to stay in the company," Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets emphasized.

In addition, many older employees maintain a high level of efficiency and have advantages such as professionalism, experience, discipline and responsibility, added Olga Belenkaya from Finam. Moreover, they are usually less demanding of the salary and more loyal to the employer. When young people have good professional skills, they pay more attention to flexible working hours and maintaining a balance with their personal lives, while not always demonstrating a high-quality depth of knowledge, Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets agrees.

"Nevertheless, although employers' loyalty to 50+ applicants has increased, finding employment for such people still remains a more difficult task than for other ages," said the research director. hh.ru Maria Ignatova.

But the situation is uneven — it all depends on the professional field, she admitted.

Hiring the elderly and the problem of poverty

In general, the active hiring of people of pre—retirement age is a useful trend for the economy. It helps to reduce poverty, and this is now one of the most important tasks of the state. The topic became one of the key topics in the President's speech at SPIEF 2025.

He said that by the end of last year, poverty had dropped to 7.2%. For comparison, in 2000, the figure was 29%, when about 42.3 million people were in this situation. And in the first quarter of this year, the number of citizens with incomes below the subsistence level decreased by more than 2 million compared to the same period in 2023.

Moreover, the problem is more acute for older people.

— Many elderly people are forced to continue working due to a lack of retirement savings and rising living costs. It is the elderly, especially women, who are most vulnerable to poverty. This is due to the fact that they are more likely to receive low pensions and face high costs for medical services," says Maria Koleda, head of the information department of the Independent Trade Union Novy Trud.

The main reasons are gender stereotypes and unequal pay for the same job, she explained. The situation worsened during the pandemic, when it was necessary to combine work and family responsibilities, while jobs were often closed in sectors with a predominance of women.

The Government is taking measures to reduce poverty among the older generation. For example, since January 1, 2025, the authorities have returned the indexation of old-age pensions for the working elderly, which has returned highly qualified personnel to the labor market, said Galina Sorokina, director of the Institute of Economics and Finance at the State University of Management.

It is quite possible that the labor market will continue to be more age-related, says Tatiana Ushkats, an expert at the RUDN University Faculty of Economics. Nowadays, many people who get married decide to have children later. According to her, in order to support them and yourself, you need to work, and it is quite difficult for elderly people to live on pension alone.