• 1 in 8 workers had been discouraged from applying from jobs on grounds of age;
• 1 in 4 think that employers are not interested in employing people over age 40.

NOP evaluation survey, Spring 2001: Evaluating the Government's voluntary Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment, NOP found that:

• 9 out of 10 older people believe that employers discriminate against older employees;
• 1 in 4 people have personally experienced age discrimination.
• half had workforces with less than 10% over age 50 and 10% had no employees over 50;
• yet two-thirds thought that they had 'age friendly' policies and supported in principal legislation on age diversity.

Silicon Research Services, October 2000:

• In a study of the IT industry, two-thirds of a sample of 1,400 IT professionals thought they would be unable to get a job past age 45. Union Network International, the authors, concluded that ageism is "rife". Although two-thirds of IT firms have difficulty recruiting, ageism was assessed as having an impact after age 35.

NOP Monitoring the Code, June 2000:
In its monitoring of the impact of the voluntary Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment for the Department for Education
& Enterprise (DfEE), NOP found that:

• 85% of over-50s believed that there is discrimination against older workers;
• over 95% of employers believed that they had 'age friendly' employment policies and saw no need to change to meet the principles of the Code of Practice;
• 20% of over-50s said that they had had direct experience of age discrimination.

Continental Research for DfEE, June 2000:
Research for the former Department for Education & Enterprise found that:

• 50% of unemployed people over age 50 said that they had been discriminated against on grounds of age;
• 78% said the barriers made it harder to get jobs;
• 45% of over-45s in early retirement said they would like to work again if there were opportunities.

Institute of Management, 1997:
In Breaking the Barriers, the Institute reported that:

• 44% of a sample of 1,648 managers
  said that they had experienced age discrimination;
• 55% of the sample of managers said
  that they had used age as a criterion in recruitment.

A Report on AGEISM IN AM ERICA By International Longevity Centre-USA

• 1 million to 3 million Americans aged 65+ have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depend for care or protection
• Estimates of the frequency of elder abuse range from 2 percent to 10 percent.
• Only one out of six incidents of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, and self-neglect is brought to the attention of authorities

  (Download Full Report)