The employability of older job-seekers: Evidence from Germany

Encouraged by the European Employment Strategy, the German government, like many other European governments, promotes individual employability as an instrument to improve the persistently low employment prospects of older job-seekers in the labour market. However, ageing is only rarely discussed in contemporary employability approaches. This article includes various employability approaches and empirically tests the commonly used dimensions of employability in actual labour market prospects with respect to older job-seekers (>50 years of age). Many dimensions of employability are found to vary by age, and older job-seekers can be described as disadvantaged with regard to certain dimensions. However, disadvantages in “classical” employability factors cannot fully explain the comparatively poor labour market prospects of older job-seekers. This article shows that older job-seekers in Germany are less likely to transit from unemployment to employment, even after controlling for employability factors.