While ageism is very likely a real problem, the methodology used in this study is problematic. Quote: > “The tech industry is hiring a disproportionately high

While ageism is very likely a real problem, the methodology used in this study is problematic. Quote: > “The tech industry is hiring a disproportionately higher ratio of workers than non-tech up until the age of 48—indicating bias does exist that favors younger candidates,” the report states. It seems like the authors looked at how many people the software industry was employing relative to the rest of the market. The correct (albeit trickier) approach is to look at ratio of applications to offers, grouped by age. Controlling for other variables would be ideal, but it makes this doubly harder. The approach taken by the authors (looking at the ratio in the software industry vs. the wider economy) hides too many confounding variables. What if people in software make more money and are able to retire, so they stop seeking work around 50? What if there just aren't as many qualified people 48+ years old compared to other industries since software is a younger field? Those and other questions are hard to answer when you take the approach taken by the authors.