A new book released at the World Economic Forum in Davos calls for a rethink of business practices to ensure older workers’ knowledge and experience is optimised rather than assuming a young workforce is more productive.

Economies not only receive a “longevity dividend” by keeping their over-50s in jobs and increasing consumption and tax receipts while reducing welfare spending — their per capita productivity can improve, the book, Global Population Ageing: Peril or Promise, claims.

Co-author Simon Biggs, professor of gerontology and social policy at Melbourne University, said Australian policymakers had started to recognise the need to engage older workers better, but in practice age was still a negative criterion when assessing people for jobs.

“Australia has been relatively fast off the blocks in terms of looking for policy change, but it’s difficult to say it’s keeping up with its competitors in terms of attracting older workers,” he told The Australian yesterday.

“We have a lot of agencies and inquiries, Treasury has looked at it and we have a new commissioner for age discrimination, but you also get the feeling that employers still implicitly use age as a criteria for their decision-making.

“Internationally, there is more recognition of their value in the sense that there’s growing competition for their services, whereas Australia still has, for example, these archaic migration regulations restricting over-45s coming here to work.”

Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis said that although the unemployment rate for mature-age workers was lower than the nation’s average of 5.2 per cent at 3.3 per cent, the crunch point came when they were trying to find a new job.

Ms Ellis pointed to a number of government programs in place to help older workers back into jobs, including More Help for Mature Age Workers and the Experience Plus career advice service.

“The skills and experience of mature-age Australians are one of our greatest assets,” she said.

“What we have to overcome if we are to be a truly inclusive workforce and one that continues to harness the benefits of a larger working population is this unfounded bias against employing older people.”

Professor Biggs said countries with older workers did perform better. The Nordic countries were good examples.

International research showed little difference in productivity levels between older and younger workers.

“There are advantages in older workers: loyalty, lack of absenteeism, continuity of employment,” he said.

“Their interpersonal skills are better, as well. But companies still heavily discriminate in their training opportunities in favour of younger employees.”