KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A new study found that older employees may not be getting a fair shake when it comes to finding a new job through Facebook's targeted method of advertising for open jobs.
The report, recently completed by ProPublica and the New York Times, found that companies are using targeted ads on Facebook to attract only a certain age of employee, a practice which critics say may violate age discrimination laws.
Some of the companies using the targeted ads for younger employees included Verizon, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook.
The ability of Facebook to target those ads to users who have been identified by the social media service to have characteristics sought by the employers – including age – is something that some think run afoul of employment law, which prohibits discrimination of workers older than 40.
In the report, Facebook defended the practice, saying the ad targeting helps people of all ages find work.
One company listed in the report, Amazon, told ProPublica that the company was correcting some of its job targeting following an internal review.
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