When Jennifer Kolppanen received an email to visit her school principal’s office at the end of the day in June, she imagined one of two things would happen: Either she gets laid off, or she is asked to split her time between two schools. She recalled going into shock after being told it was the former. “They handed me this letter and told me to read it, which I couldn’t. I tried (but) I was so in shock,” the 55-year-old said. By then, she had been working for 29 years as a library technician and was 16 months away from receiving her pension. Instead, she received a six-month severance and six weeks’ worth of pay in lieu of notice. While she wasn’t surprised her position was eliminated, she hoped that she would receive an early retirement offer or enough severance to be able to receive her pension. “I was wrong,” she said. Before, she had envisioned retiring in the short term and spending her time volunteering. Instead, four months later, Kolppanen was living with her parents and visiting employment advisers for help with job applications. “I’ve just learned what ‘Linked In’ is but I’m not sure how to use it or if I want to learn,” she wrote in an email. CTV News asked readers aged 55 and older what it has been like to look for employment as an older person. Those who responded described grappling with a job market vastly different from the one they had experienced at the beginning of their careers. Others spoke of applying for jobs they felt overqualified for and feeling passed over for younger candidates with less experience. Some spoke to re-entering the job market after being let go, only a few years or less before the age of retirement and having to contend with finding new employment rather than making plans for the golden years. “I’ve taken 29 years to turn this into a job that I really love doing,” Kolppanen said. “It’s so daunting to think I’m going to have to do that all over again.” Older Canadians working longer More older Canadians are staying longer in the workforce, data shared last week by Statistics Canada showed. Those aged 65 and older accounted for 23.2 per cent of the working age population, up from 20.5 per cent in September 2019. A StatCan report published in April found that the percentage of Canadian seniors, aged 65 and older, rose for the fifth consecutive year to 15.2 per cent in 2025. “For years, the trend had been the other way,” Rafael Gomez, a professor of employment relations and human resources at University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca on Thursday. But in the last decade, the “nature of work” has changed, he said. “Old jobs were physically taxing” with a lot of “wear-and-tear – literally – on the body,” Gomez said. However, he added today’s jobs have “a longer lifespan” and that “you can work productively for longer in these jobs.” The elimination of a working-age cap has also meant that people can work beyond the age of 65 and choose when they want to retire. “So now we had workers who no longer were being pushed out,” he said. Last week, StatCan also reported that the unemployment rate in September inched up to 6.5 per cent, which means a net 68,300 jobs across the country were lost. The drop followed a decline of 41,700 jobs in August. According to the October report, the unemployment rate among people aged 55 and older rose 0.2 percentage points to 5.3 per cent in September. “If we have rising unemployment, then it stands to reason that even in that group, since they’re more engaged in the labour market, they too will see more unemployment,” he said. Job-hunting instead of retiring Louis Labelle, who lives in Ottawa, said she had been laid off in August 2025, two months after turning 65. Since then, she has interviewed for five other similar roles but hasn’t received an offer. “If I don’t find a job in the next six months, I will have to give up my apartment and live out of my car,” she wrote in an email. “I’m not in any position to retire.” Mike Miller, 64, who lives in B.C., said he was “one year from retirement.” “I have very slim retirement savings,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for over a year.” Kolppanen had planned to work for two more years before deciding whether to continue or retire. “I (was) just going to see how I feel,” she said. Her bank adviser had recommended she work for five more years. She said she had been looking forward to days where she could volunteer if she felt like it, rather than being tied to a working schedule. “I don’t have those luxuries (anymore),” she said of her current situation. Passed over for younger candidates After losing her job in 2017, Celina Mantler, now 58, decided to get her master of business administration degree after being told it would help her advance in her career. After graduating in 2022, she described repeatedly losing opportunities to “younger people with far less experience and ... less education.” Labelle stated she was told by an employer that he “typically” hires people with young families. Gomez said employers are likely to question whether they can hire someone who is at the end of their career with higher salary expectations, while seniors may have to contend with a boss who is much younger than they are. “The problem for older workers is finding the next job,” he said. New job screening, requirements After finding a job listing for the city’s public library, Kolppanen fished out her resume and compared it to common job requirements recently posted . She realized her resume was outdated, she said, and had to take a few days to work on it. When seeking help with an employment adviser, she found herself “floored” when she was told employers run application documents through an AI screening program. “They’re going to throw out my resume because AI doesn’t like it?” she recalled asking. Lisa Bennett, 60, who lives in Ottawa, said she wanted to return to part-time work in early childhood education with 30 years of experience in the field. When she attempted to reinstate her registration with the College of Early Childhood Education, she said she was denied as the criteria had since changed. “My registration would still be valid today had fees been maintained,” she wrote in an email. “As a 60-year‑old professional, this feels like unintended age discrimination. Older members are being held to new requirements that did not exist when our credentials were granted."
