Abstract

The reform of Sweden’s pension system with the introduction of a flexible retirement age raises questions on how this is reflected in the job market in relation to extended work–life policy, older adults as job seekers, and ageism. This study aims at exploring ways in which government agencies respond to these changes in their recruitment practices, focusing on how they portray themselves as attractive employers to older job seekers. The study intends to contribute to an understanding of how a policy shift related to age norms manifests itself in public sector recruitment practices. Through the collection of pictures of persons and texts regarding employment posted on websites of over one hundred government agencies in Sweden, a mixed method analysis is employed using image analysis of the persons portrayed and content analysis of the written texts. The result shows that the agencies tend to emphasize youthfulness and energetic appearances, often associated with younger adults, in pictures of persons posted on their employment websites. When describing the advantages of the agency as a workplace, references to benefits or other aspects specifically related to older job seekers, such as the right to longer vacation, part-time retirement possibilities, and anti-discrimination work on age are less frequent. Thus, government agencies still appear to be influenced by age norms in their recruitment practices, whereas older job seekers remain in the margins. This implies a need to further investigate age norm change in relation to the enhancement of diversity in recruitment practices by the public sector regarding older job seekers.