Manual workers, people with low qualifications and males are most at risk of leaving the workforce because of illness, injury and disability, according to new research.

The National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre (NSPAC) report, Disengagement of mature age people from the labour force, investigated the reasons why older people ceased employment, which groups were most at risk of leaving the workforce and their financial outcomes post-employment.

The report found an unemployed person aged 50–69, who did not have a non-school qualification and who were previously employed in a manual occupation, had a 52 per cent likelihood to have ceased their last job because of illness, injury or disability.

In comparison, people with both high school and non-school qualifications, and who previously had a non-manual job, had only a 23 per cent likelihood to have left their last job because of the same three factors.

In addition, most people who had been unemployed for at least 12 months relied on a government pension or allowance as their primary source of income.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said discovering the barriers to mature age employment was important at a time when government is encouraging people to work longer and become more self-sufficient in retirement.

“The government has introduced a number of policy interventions to promote longer working lives, such as wage subsidies and gradually increasing the Age Pension age,” O’Neill said.

“But without determining the barriers to working longer there is likely to be a significant number of older people out of work in the future.”

O’Neill said further investment in training was required to help prevent high risk groups becoming unemployed.

“People in manual occupations who are most at risk of leaving the workforce at an early age would benefit most from any formal qualifications or re-training opportunities,” O’Neill said.

“Investment in training and focussing on the skills of these people at an earlier age would prevent them being left on the scrapheap.”

Around half the men who have been out of work for at least 12 months, whose last job was in a manual occupation and who were retrenched, received the Disability Support Pension (DSP), the report found.

“This result is consistent with the finding that the rise in women’s eligibility age for the Age Pension led to an increase in enrolment in the DSP, effectively providing an alternative source of retirement income,” O’Neill added.

Twelve per cent of people left their last job because they were retrenched dismissed or there was no work available; 23 per cent left because they had reached retirement age and eight per cent of people left because of caring responsibilities.

“The report’s findings underline the difficulties many mature age people experience while trying to remain in physically demanding manual occupations at an age where such roles may not be suitable for their physical capabilities,’’ O’Neill said.

“There remains a lot of scope for employers to modify the type of work and job tasks to facilitate people with health issues to stay in the workplace for longer.”

Read the full report here

Source: National Seniors

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