As older workers look to transition out of full-time work into flexible labor, the freelance employment platforms through which they submit applications may not adequately recognize their credentials.
These findings come from a study in the Journal of Administrative Science Quarterly — conducted by academics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Cambridge Judge Business School — that observed older workers engaging with Upwork as a case study.
The advent of the Internet and the popularity of the gig economy may have set false expectations for the ease of the transition. Researchers characterized this phenomenon as a “cold start.”
“It’s especially acute for late-career workers seeking to change their working pattern,” report co-author Sienna Helena Parker of Cambridge Judge Business School said in a Sep. 16 statement. “We find that these late-career workers who make a change to freelance work often need to recalibrate not only their professional worth, but also their motivations for making such a move that is more challenging than it might look before they take the plunge.”
A challenge for work-seekers and recruiters alike
Researchers also highlighted what they called “reputation system misalignment” between the systems older workers historically trusted to assess their professional value and the new online systems, where they must build reputation through platform ratings instead.
While this problem may seem niche, workers aged over 55 comprise about 23% of the workforce — and the share of workers aged over 65 has increased by more than 40% year over year, per a 2026 report from MyPerfectResume. With this in mind, the Cambridge-Santa Barbara findings indicate that HR may need to go the extra mile to connect with older talent.
Per the abstract of this “cold starts” study, the “same remote, digital features that promised personalization introduced new constraints.” The platforms themselves may risk alienating older workers, researchers said, adding that, “this loss is consequential, as many industries face talent shortages driven by full retirement and labor force exit, a trend that will intensify with demographic shifts.”
How HR can connect with older talent
A 2022 ZipRecruiter report highlighted how several problems are plaguing older workers — from employers overlooking certain talent due to their industry’s workforce skewing young, to a lack of confidence from the older workers themselves.
At the time, a chief economist for ZipRecruiter told HR Dive that HR professionals are the ones who can bring candidates “to the top of the funnel.” Not only does this look like shaping the job candidate shortlist, but also recruiting in the AARP or veteran space.
Closing this gap could be crucial, especially considering that 59% of workers aged 50 and older said they felt that their age was an obstacle during the hiring process, per a 2024 report from CWI Labs. Likewise, only 21% had felt optimistic about finding a job within the next six months.
In sharing the research findings, CWI Labs CEO and founder Gary Officer emphasized the importance of collaboration between policymakers and business leaders to “challenge the current approach to workforce development and drive opportunities for older workers to thrive in the rapidly evolving world of work.”
