For the same other forms of hiring discrimination are a problem. The market doesn't solve every problem. For groups that are significant minorities within a can

For the same other forms of hiring discrimination are a problem. The market doesn't solve every problem. For groups that are significant minorities within a candidate population, discrimination in hiring is unlikely to lead to a severe enough shortage of good workers to outweigh the unthinking unfairness of explicit or implicit discrimination. Further, if _no_ companies are hiring a certain group of people, then there will be no impact at all. In any case, it's morally wrong, regardless of market impact. Refusing to hire people who are "too young" is also a problem, but it's far, far less common. Discrimination against qualified candidates for being "too old" is extremely common. Typically we would want to focus on the bigger problems first, but obviously attempts to bring age discrimination problems to light will probably help at both ends of the spectrum.