Prompted by competing concerns and testimony from employers and displaced workers, Congress asked this committee to examine the existence and extent of age discrimination among information technology workers. As noted earlier in this report, employers describe profound worker shortages and thousands of open positions left unfilled for lengthy periods of time. Employers observe that their high costs of recruiting and retaining IT workers would make excluding workers because they are associated with a particular demographic category self-defeating and would constitute irrational business behavior.

In contrast, Congress and this committee have heard testimony from individuals who believe that age discrimination against older workers is widespread. For example, the committee received through electronic channels a substantial number of comments that involved age discrimination from individuals who believe older workers are more likely to be laid off than younger workers and then, once without a job, older workers are less likely to find new employment as well. As one (54-year-old) IT worker wrote, “I believe age discrimination is rampant. Several years ago I became unemployed and was only able to get interviews if I deleted the first 15 years of my experience from a resume.”

Against this backdrop, the committee examined data from a variety of sources, reviewed some studies done on the topic of age discrimination, and took testimony at each of the sites visited.