Think so? You're quite mistaken. There are a lot of jobs for which there is no up--no possibility of promotion. If you're not young enough, if you're not the right color or ethnicity, you are not going to get promoted even if you save the company's bacon.
I'm pushing '60 and was unemployed in '09 and '11 both.
I have never collected a dime of unemployment in my life, I have always found work whether I had to move or not.
So when am I supposedly too old to get hired?