A boomer living on Social Security applied to 3,700 jobs in 7 years. He suspects ageism set him back in the job market.

Photo collage of a boomer overlaying a spreadsheet — Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

“I received kissoff in email 2/5/2021,” Mark Porter wrote, adding, “I asked if the woman I phone screened with had any further feedback as to why I wasn’t hired.”

That’s one of 224 similar notes about rejections that Porter has entered into the spreadsheet he uses to track the nearly 3,700 job applications he’s sent out in the last seven years.

After being laid off from a full-time job in early 2018 at the age of 60, he’s been unable to secure another permanent role.

Porter, now 67, has spent most of his career in payroll and accounting roles, including stints as a payroll specialist, accounting associate, and accounts receivable clerk. In the years since his layoff, he’s earned some income from short-term contract roles, the last of which was a payroll specialist job that ended in the summer of 2024, when the original employee returned from maternity leave.

“I had to burn through my 401(k), and I had to burn through money that my mother left me,” said Porter, who rents a one-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts. “It’s been really rough.”

Porter’s story reflects the challenges many older Americans are facing. They’re struggling to find work, draining their savings, and watching retirement slip further away. Business Insider has heard from thousands of older Americans who are having trouble affording necessities with limited savings and Social Security income. Hundreds have said they are still working full time, have taken part-time jobs to supplement their income, or are actively looking for work.

These challenges are compounded by a cooling job market. While the unemployment rate for Americans age 55 and older remains low compared to historical levels, it’s ticked up over the past two years as various factors, ranging from economic uncertainty to the early impacts of AI adoption, have led many companies to cut back on hiring. US businesses are now hiring at nearly the slowest pace in more than a decade, and white-collar jobs, which include the payroll and accounting roles Porter is looking for, have been particularly affected. The number of accounting job postings on Indeed has declined significantly since 2022.

Business Insider has heard from hundreds of Americans over the past year who are struggling to find work as US businesses slow hiring and flatten management structures. Share your story by filling out this quick form and read more below:

Combatting age bias in the hiring process

Since April 2017, Porter has tracked every job he applies to in a Google spreadsheet, which includes the company name, job title, pay, location, and which version of his résumé he used.

Despite holding a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and having decades of work experience, Porter has had trouble landing interviews. This has led him to conclude that his age is a major factor holding him back.

Porter said job searching started to become more difficult in his fifties and persisted throughout the Great Resignation, even as job postings and hiring surged amid the post-pandemic recovery. He said he knows several people his age facing similar struggles. Through conversations with them, Porter heard a theory that applicant tracking systems can detect a candidate’s age based on certain phrases in résumés, potentially hurting older applicants’ chances. Porter said a professional résumé writer he hired about two years ago believed the theory had some merit.

“She said rewording will get you past a lot of these résumé readers that just toss résumés in the trash based on how old they think you are — by the tone of the way the résumé is written,” he said.

Porter said he couldn’t recall exactly what tweaks were made to his résumé, but that they didn’t seem to boost his response rate from employers.

Though age discrimination is difficult to prove, in a survey published by Harris Poll and the American Staffing Association in 2024, 78% of baby boomers said they believed their age would be a contributing factor when being considered for a new position, and 53% said they thought their age limited their career opportunities.

Financial challenges have had personal and career impacts

Porter said his age isn’t the only thing complicating his job search. A few years ago, Porter said he interviewed for a role at a financial services company that seemed promising — until the company asked to run a credit check.

At the time, he was in bankruptcy, the result of credit card debt he’d accumulated to cover living expenses while unemployed. The company told him that because the role involved handling financial securities, his bankruptcy could complicate his hiring, and the interview process stopped there. Porter said he hopes to emerge from bankruptcy in the coming months and may reach back out to the company to see if any opportunities are still available.

In the meantime, Porter’s roughly $2,000 a month Social Security check, which he said he began collecting two years ago, is what’s keeping him afloat.

“That’s the only reason I have a roof over my head and food to eat,” said Porter. His Social Security income is critical because he was forced to deplete much of his savings during his years of job hunting.

Looking ahead, Porter plans to keep applying for positions through Indeed, but he said there seem to be significantly fewer job postings than there were a few years ago. In recent months, he said he’s broadened his search, even contacting the owner of a plumbing company to ask whether someone his age could realistically be trained and hired. He didn’t get a firm answer.

When he’s not looking for work, he said he can’t afford to vacation as much as he used to, but that he’s found ways to stay productive.

“There’s a pool at my apartment complex where I can swim during the summer,” he said. “And the rest of the year, I go to a health club and I have books I can read. I keep myself busy.”

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