Everyone is blaming something, ageism, AI, the economy. Pick your villain. But moaning about villains does not get you a job.

Yes, the economy is a mess. Companies are cutting back and only hiring for today’s crisis, not tomorrow’s opportunity. That makes it harder. No argument.
Yes, AI is involved. Your CV might get rejected before a human ever sees it. But before you shout “unfair”, ask yourself: did humans ever do it better? Bias, laziness, gut feel, recruiters have been binning CVs for decades. At least the machine is consistent.

And yes, plenty of people over 50 are convinced ageism is the reason they are out of work. But here is the hard truth: twenty-something graduates are saying exactly the same thing. So maybe the problem is not just age. Maybe the market has shifted and too many of us have not shifted with it.

Here is the uncomfortable bit: sometimes AI is right. If the skills are not there, no amount of complaining will change the result. The world has moved on. The jobs have moved on. Have you?

The skills that matter now are not the ones you built your CV on ten years ago. Employers want adaptability, judgement, the ability to work with technology rather than fight it, and the guts to make decisions when nothing is certain.
So yes, job hunting is harder. But blaming the market, the robots or your date of birth is not going to change it. The only thing that will is sharpening your skills and facing reality head-on.

Stop waiting for the world to change in your favour. It already changed. Now it is your move.