In Your 40s Or 50s And Looking? The Latest Jobs Data Is More On Your Side Than You Think.

One of the worries we hear most often from experienced candidates is that age is starting to count against them. Someone in their late 40s or 50s with a long track record in IT, finance or risk applies for a role they could do comfortably, hears nothing back, and wonders whether the dates on their CV were the reason. The latest official figures do not make that worry disappear, but they do suggest the job market is a lot friendlier to experienced people than it can feel from the inside.

What the latest figures show

Stats NZ's employment indicators for September, released on 28 October, show the number of filled jobs up 22,791, or 1.0 percent, on a year earlier. When Stats NZ broke that growth down by age, the largest increases were among people in the middle and later stages of their careers. Filled jobs held by people aged 35 to 39 rose by 9,557 (3.4 percent), those aged 40 to 44 by 7,832 (3.1 percent) and those aged 45 to 49 by 5,834 (2.6 percent). People aged 55 to 59 added 4,541 jobs (2.3 percent), and people aged 65 and over added 5,800 (4.3 percent).

A good share of the year's growth went to people with twenty or thirty years of working life behind them, even through a market that has been slow for most of the year.

What the numbers do and do not say

Filled jobs count people on a payroll, not vacancies, so they tell you who is employed rather than who is being hired for advertised roles. Some of the growth also reflects migration and an ageing population, with more New Zealanders now in their late 50s and 60s. The monthly data is also provisional and can be revised. Even with all of that in mind, the figures are hard to square with the idea that employers have stopped wanting experienced people.

The worry is still real

None of this means age bias has gone away. A 2023 survey of 500 New Zealanders aged 50 and over, commissioned by insurer NZ Seniors, found 71 percent of working over 50s thought ageism in the workplace was reasonably or extremely prevalent. Thirteen percent were certain they had been turned down for a job because of their age, and a further 37 percent thought they had probably experienced age discrimination at work. It is also worth knowing that age is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Act for anyone aged 16 or over, and Employment New Zealand's guidance is clear that this covers job ads, applications, interviews and offers.

The most useful part of that survey is what people believed the reasons were. Among those who felt they had been turned down because of their age, the most common reasons were being seen as overqualified (42 percent), not the right fit for the company (40 percent) and not able to keep up with younger generations (38 percent). Those are concerns a hiring manager may never say out loud, and you can answer every one of them before anyone has to ask.

Answer the questions nobody asks

If there is any chance of looking overqualified, say plainly why you want this particular role. It might be that you want to stay hands on rather than manage a large team, that the work itself interests you, or that you would rather contribute than climb. A hiring manager who understands your reasons stops worrying that you will be bored in six months or leave for the next senior title.

On fit, talk about how you work with people rather than only what you have delivered. Mention the junior colleagues you have brought through and the teams you have worked across. Experienced people who come across as easy to work with and open to other ways of doing things are very hard to turn down.

On keeping up, be specific about what you have learned recently. That might be the AI tools you use in your work, a new finance system you helped roll out, a cloud platform you have picked up or the regulation you have had to get across. One or two recent, concrete examples do more than any amount of reassurance. CBRE's 2026 office occupier survey found 64 percent of organisations expect to need upskilling or reskilling as AI changes jobs, so someone who has shown they can pick up new tools is exactly what many employers want.

Make your CV work for you

Most hiring managers only need the detail on your last ten to fifteen years. Earlier roles can be summed up in a few lines, and you do not need the year you finished your degree at the top of the page. This is not about hiding your age but about keeping the CV focused on what is most relevant, which is good advice at any age.

Lead with outcomes from recent roles and keep the language current. If your LinkedIn profile still has a photo from a decade ago, refresh it, because many hiring managers look there before they read the CV.

Where experience tends to win

In our experience, there are areas where a long track record is a real advantage. Risk and compliance roles, finance leadership, large IT programmes and anything involving complex stakeholders or regulators all reward people who have seen things go wrong before and know how to steer through it. Contract work is another strong option, because a business bringing someone in for a defined piece of work usually wants a person who can get going on day one.

What this means for experienced candidates

The latest Stats NZ figures suggest that people in their late 30s, 40s and 50s have been doing better in this job market than the headlines might suggest, even if the data has limits. Age bias is real for some people, but the most common concerns behind it are ones you can address directly, through how you explain your reasons for wanting a role, how you talk about working with others and how clearly you show what you have learned recently.

If you are an experienced IT, finance, accounting, risk or corporate professional thinking about your next move, get in touch with the Find team for a confidential chat.

Sources: Stats NZ, Employment indicators: September 2026 (28 October 2026); NZ Seniors, Working Seniors Report 2023 (survey of 500 New Zealanders aged 50 and over, February 2023); Employment New Zealand, Discrimination when hiring; Human Rights Act 1993; CBRE, 2026 New Zealand Office Occupier Sentiment Survey (October 2026).