This study uses an original dataset of online mid-career job ads for full-time sales jobs collected from July 2018 to December 2019 to examine the use of explicit and implied age limits on job applicants and the characteristics of firms that set them. Although Japanese law prohibits age discrimination in employment, several exemptions, such as hiring young workers without prior work experience on regular contracts, are allowed. Firms can set an age limit, require job-related experience, or search broadly; however, they can also express their age preference in other ways. In the sample, 24 % of ads included explicit age limits generally capped at 35 years, 26 % set experience requirements, and nearly all contained some form of implied age preference. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the results show that firms with higher capital, those with fewer employees, older firms and those located in urban centers tended to set requirements on applicants. Further, domestic firms, firms with fewer employees, in urban centers and firms using probation periods for new hires were more likely to set age limits. Moreover, firms setting either requirement did not seem to be sensitive to local labor market conditions. Firms searching broadly responded to population age-related increased wage expectations while reducing labor costs by increasing the number of working hours covered by a baseline wage.

中文翻译：

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在职业中期招聘中，年轻员工更喜欢使用在线广告进行销售工作：来自日本的证据

本研究使用 2018 年 7 月至 2019 年 12 月收集的全职销售职位在线职业生涯中期招聘广告的原始数据集，来研究对求职者明确和隐含年龄限制的使用情况以及设定年龄限制的公司的特征。尽管日本法律禁止就业中的年龄歧视，但允许一些豁免，例如通过定期合同雇用没有工作经验的年轻工人。公司可以设定年龄限制、要求有工作相关经验或进行广泛的搜索；然而，他们也可以通过其他方式表达他们的年龄偏好。在样本中，24% 的广告包含明确的年龄限制（通常上限为 35 岁），26% 的广告设定了经验要求，并且几乎所有广告都包含某种形式的隐含年龄偏好。与理论预测一致，结果表明，资本较高的企业、员工较少的企业、历史较悠久的企业以及位于城市中心的企业往往会对申请人提出要求。此外，国内企业、员工较少的企业、城市中心的企业以及对新员工实行试用期的企业更有可能设定年龄限制。此外，设定任一要求的公司似乎对当地劳动力市场状况并不敏感。搜索企业广泛应对与人口年龄相关的工资预期增加，同时通过增加基准工资涵盖的工作时间来降低劳动力成本。