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Features · Making It · Published 7 August 2026

Age discrimination can start at 40 in Sweden’s job market

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DailySweden
Updated 09:47 · 2 min read

Two adult women stand among attendees at a Danish-Swedish job fair in Copenhagen.
Two adult women stand among attendees at a Danish-Swedish job fair in Copenhagen.. Image: Sofie Paisley / News Oresund / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

The age barrier in Swedish hiring can appear while an applicant still expects decades of working life ahead. A large field experiment found the disadvantage emerging much earlier than many employers said they considered someone old.

IFAU researchers sent more than 6,000 fictitious applications for real vacancies, randomly varying age from 35 to 70. Employer callbacks began falling substantially early in that range. On average, each additional year

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