When I was 41 years old, I was laid-off from the engineering department at a nuclear plant. That was in 1993.
Could not find work for two years. Why? I was told I was over-qualified for nearly everything.
What was really outrageous about that time, 1993 - 1995, is that hundreds of thousands of U.S. electrical and computer engineers were unemployed, but the high-tech firms insisted on hiring foreign engineers, newly graduated.
Reading this article reminded me of that.
They hired foreign engineers for a of couple reasons. First, they would work for less than an American would, and second, they filled a quota for their EEOC inspectors. A female foreign engineer would be a two-fer, and if she were dark skinned olive complexion, a three-fer.
At the time you mentioned, I had to hire a skilled metrology technician for the company I worked for at the time. I was told by HR that I had to hire a female, and preferably a minority. I interviewed several candidates, white males, who were all well qualified. I found one black female technician who was very minimally qualified at best. I had no choice but to go with her. She lasted a week until her drug test results came in. .....
Most of them had done 4 or 5 years to get am undergraduate Business or Accounting degree and were all abysmally ignorant of what it takes to get a real degree in Arts and Sciences ~ it's far different.
Degrees in the other traditional divisions also suffered at their hands, particular engineers and folks in architecture (which has several major subdivisions).
The result was that you had hiring officers with MBAs who faced with a fellow with a Philosophy degree couldn't imagine that he was probably a near graduate level mathematician who simply couldn't catch the required course in topology only offered every 3 years. Instead, they'd hire on the Elementary Education graduate because they knew what that took ~