Employers must start recruiting seniors or face labour shortages as the Australian population ages, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

Mr Swan on Friday accepted a report on the economic potential of seniors, saying the proportion of Australians aged 65 or over would rise to 23 per cent by 2050.

Seniors currently make up 14 per cent of the population, and Mr Swan said it was “an economic imperative” for businesses to start hiring older people as the population aged.

“What we are going to see in the future is we will have shortages of labour given the strength of our economy,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“Business will find that very productive I think and they will see in their bottom line the advantage of recruiting older Australians.

“This is an economic imperative for many businesses right now and it’s going to become even stronger in the future.”

The report was written by the Advisory Panel on the Economic Potential of Senior Australians, set up by the federal government in March.

It contains no recommendations but a series of questions for debate, with two more reports expected by the end of the year.

Chair Everald Compton, the former head of National Seniors Australia, said the panel was looking at an incentive plan to encourage older people to stay in the workforce.

He said the nation was missing out on $10 billion older Australians could bring to the economy if they were back in work.

“Industry is missing out on an enormous opportunity. Discrimination against older people in the workforce has to change and that will have an enormous effect, positively, on the Australian economy,” he told reporters.

Mr Swan ruled out increasing the retirement age.

“We made a change there two budgets ago, recognising the increasing age of the population,” he said.

“I’d like to make it very clear we’re not considering any change to the retirement age.”

But he said discrimination against older people in the workforce was an issue that had to be dealt with.

“I think it will lessen over time because demand for elderly workers will increase substantially but it is one (issue) that is raised frequently,” he said.

Mr Compton said the ageing population would drive growth in industries such as IT training, adult education, and niche sectors in the building, fashion and recreation industries.

“The greying of Australia provides an opportunity for a golden economic era for Australia,” he told reporters.

“We’re trying to say … to commerce and industry there is an enormous market out there for you to capitalise on and the time to do that is now.”

Source: Ninemsn.com.au

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