Millennials in tech, your suspicions were correct: Gen Z is starting to take your market by storm. Newly released federal data shows that the U.S. tech workforce is younger than the general workforce, and it’s getting younger. More tech workers are under the age of 25, while the percentage of workers over 40 is declining.
There’s a long-held perception that tech workers should be young to move fast and innovate. Job applicants are evaluated on “cultural fit,” and youth is often celebrated in that culture. “I want to emphasize the importance of being young and skilled. Young people are just smarter,” said Mark Zuckerberg, who was 22 at the time (and turned 40 this year). But when it comes to actual age discrimination, the problem is that bad vibes outweigh the evidence.
A new report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released this month puts that atmosphere in numbers. The commission surveyed more than 10 million technology workers as of 2022 (including workers across a range of industries in 56 STEM-related occupations) and found that about 41% of them were between the ages of 25 and 39, an age group that makes up just 33% of the overall U.S. workforce. Younger workers fare even better in technology, with the number of people under 25 growing about 9% annually from 2014 to 2022, to make up 7% of the technology workforce by 2022, more than 20 times the rate of growth for young workers across all industries. One of the most important qualifications for getting a job in technology appears to be having a birth certificate from 1990 or later.
The number of workers aged 65 and over also increased, but only made up 4% of the workforce. They remain a significantly smaller age group working in tech, and are far less prevalent than in other industries. The EEOC’s report looks at age discrimination for the first time, and it also contains some more disturbing findings: Age discrimination claims are more prevalent in companies focused on STEM jobs; about 20% of EEOC claims filed at these companies included age-related complaints, compared to 15% in other industries.
None of this is good news, but for many it’s proof positive: The report “finally makes it clear that this is real,” says Maureen Clough, host of “It Gets Late Early,” a podcast about aging in tech. “We don’t need to be gaslighted anymore.”
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Of course, age isn’t the tech workforce’s only issue. The EEOC also found that women and Black workers remain disproportionately underrepresented, and that discrimination within the industry likely contributes to age, gender, and race disparities in the tech sector. Women make up just 22% of tech workers, the same percentage as in 2005.
The number of tech workers under the age of 25 is expected to grow about 9% annually from 2014 to 2022, more than 20 times the growth rate of young workers across all industries.
Age often takes a back seat to other age groups in promoting diversity. This may be because many people don’t believe ageism is wrong, even though U.S. law has prohibited discrimination against workers over 40 since 1967. Stereotypes and grievances about both young and old are ingrained in society and are not as often questioned as preconceptions about race, sexuality, and gender. Certain behaviors, such as trying to slow aging with anti-aging serums or openly mocking older people with the “OK, Baby Boomer” meme, have been seen as a privilege of the young rather than hostile. Ageism has been linked to poor physical and mental health, social isolation, loneliness, economic insecurity, and even premature death. 40 is a commonly considered old age in Silicon Valley, but it is also under threat in China, where workers speak of the “curse of 35” and fear that even reaching that age will reduce their career opportunities in technology.
Even with the new data, there are many unknowns. Joanna Lahey, a public policy professor at Texas A&M University who studies age discrimination, says the report shows a correlation between younger people and skilled employment, but the exact causes are unclear. The slower representation of older workers could be due to discrimination in hiring, training, or retention. But it could also be that more older workers are leaving and younger people are joining the workforce. “We don’t know the true extent of the problem, and importantly, even if there is a problem, we don’t know how to solve it,” Lahey said in an email.
But the recent layoffs have only heightened suspicions of age discrimination. More than 130,000 technology workers have been laid off worldwide this year, continuing a trend that began in 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks tech industry job cuts. Former X (then Twitter) employee John Zeman is suing the company after he was fired in November 2022 when then-51-year-old Elon Musk took over and drastically reduced staff. Zeman was 63 at the time, and his lawsuit says the layoffs cut 60% of Twitter’s workers over the age of 50 and 54% of those under the age of 50. In early September, a federal judge ruled that the class action lawsuit could move forward, finding that the claims went beyond “mere speculation.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and Company X did not respond to requests for comment. But these cases can be tricky. If older workers are paid more, for example, the cuts could be justified as cost-savings. Former IBM employees have also sued the company, alleging that employees over 40 were fired at higher rates than younger workers, but IBM has successfully blocked some of those claims (the company denies engaging in “systemic age discrimination”). The stakes are high: They could be big wins that hold tech companies accountable for their age-discriminatory practices, or they could create a chilling effect that discourages people from taking them to court.
Age discrimination is sometimes overt, but other times only subtly noticeable to employees. John Rizzo, 60, said he’s been applying for product management jobs for the past two years, but feels his age is the reason he’s still unemployed. Rizzo said he has 450 resumes and applied to more than 4,000 jobs. He says he does well in phone interviews, but when he gets on a Zoom conference call and sees his age, recruiters seem to change their tone. This has created a barrier to finding tech jobs that didn’t exist in the past. “It’s heartbreaking. For a long time, I thought it was my fault, that there was something wrong with me,” Rizzo said. Rizzo has worked at a startup he co-founded and as a contractor for other companies, but he makes a living working as a security guard. Rizzo says the lack of experienced workers like him is a loss for tech companies. “Generation X built the tech industry,” he says. “There’s a tremendous amount of value there, there’s a tremendous amount of experience there.”
The need for an intergenerational workforce is not just moral, it’s practical too. A recent survey of nearly 1,500 UK and US workers in technology, finance and professional services by the London School of Economics’ Inclusion Initiative found that employees at companies with age-inclusive working practices were twice as likely to be satisfied with their jobs and less than half as likely to look for a new job. These workers also reported feeling less productive less often. Daniel Jolles, a behavioral science researcher who worked on the study, said combining intergenerational workers brings together people with different knowledge, perspectives and social networks.
“Diversity can lead to more productive outcomes under the right conditions,” Jolles said. And it’s the kind of argument that may catch the eye of business leaders — they’re getting older, after all.
Amanda Huber is Business Insider’s senior technology correspondent. She writes about major tech companies and trends.
