Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

egardless of their individual capabilities. Scholarly literature confirms part of those
negative ascriptions to older workers – the fluid intelligence and associated short memory
capabilities and capability to quickly learn new things, physical strength, vision and hearing
decline in the process of ageing (Cattell 1971; Gerlmaier 2007). On the other hand, older
workers can compensate for the losses with their experience (Semmer/Richter 2004).
The low inclusion of older applicants in recruitment may also be due to yet another fact
– respondents from six firms reported that their establishment seldom receives applications
from persons over 49 years.
The findings from firm studies can be viewed against the broader basis of experts´
assessments from employment offices, who were interviewed in autumn 2003. The official
from a regional employment office holds that only SMEs below 500 workers are willing to
hire older employees, while “[y]ou won´t manage to place anyone in a manufacturing firm”
(JR_27 10 2003). The director of a local job placement agency confirmed the appraisal that
SMEs are more willing to hire older workers, as they value their “absolute reliability” more
than the newest technological know-how (KB_17 11 2003).
On overall, it can be concluded that only few companies recruited workers at the time of
the first or the second interview due to ongoing personnel reductions and preference for the
protection of ´insiders´; works councils played an active role in enforcing the latter.
Generalised beliefs about older workers block off their access to new workplaces. With
regard to those beliefs, I found no differences as to whether the jobs entailed a high amount
of cognitive work or physically burdening body postures and heavy lifting. For the first kind
of jobs, older workers are regarded as having obsolete technological knowledge, and as too
worn out and physically feeble for the second kind of jobs.
Chances for older workers to become integrated in the labour market (and not only in
short-term measures) rise in times of employment stability, as there have to be available
vacancies at all in order to pose chances for older applicants. Another beneficial factor for
the recruitment of older workers is a positive assessment of the age structure. The firm case
studies have shown that chances for older applicants open up in firms which have problems
to find qualified workforce.
Due to ongoing hiring freeze (if not personnel reductions) in most firms, the qualitative
panel did not provide to a more thorough picture in this policy field.
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