The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that claims of age discrimination have been rising since 2006 to 23,000 last year. Advocates for older workers say that employers are quicker to layoff older workers, and that they are less likely to get hired somewhere else. Age discrimination is harder to prove than other forms of discrimination, and it is often viewed as more acceptable is workplaces. The number of older workers who are classified as discouraged rose to 287,000 in August.
See "Older jobless workers struggle as age bias claims rise", Eve Tahmincioglu, msnbc.com, October 2, 2011