Posts Tagged “jobs for 50 plus”

A tight jobs market could be a boon for older job seekers, but the often-overlooked demographic still faces a fight against deliberate and subconscious bias.

Older workers are being welcomed back amid the ongoing labour shortage.

Older workers are being welcomed back amid the ongoing labour shortage. Photo: Getty

Indeed talent strategy adviser Lauren Anderson said while there has been an uptick in older Australians looking for work based on recent economic challenges, the population in general is working longer.

“After all, 55 today looks different to 55 a couple of decades ago,” she said.

Some organisations, such as Bunnings, are “leading the way” in cultivating a diverse workforce.

But others are dragging their feet; Ms Anderson said by doing so, they’re depriving their younger workers of mentors, and representation for their older customers or clients.

Obstacles for older job seekers

With the increasing economic pressures on everything from housing to food, older Australians looking to stay employed or get back in the game are at a significant disadvantage.

This could have dire repercussions, particularly for older women, who form one of Australia’s fastest-growing homeless demographics thanks to a lifetime of earning lower wages than men, accumulating less superannuation than men, and takings more breaks from work to bear children and care for family.

A 2016 Australian Human Rights Commission report found people aged 55 years and over made up about a quarter of the national population, but only 16 per cent of the total workforce.

The report also found older people face longer periods of unemployment, with the average duration of unemployment for mature-age people sitting at 68 weeks, compared to 30 weeks for 15 to 24-year-olds and 49 weeks for 25 to 54-year-olds.

The age at which an employee would be considered an older worker varies between industries, although a 2021 Australian HR Institute report found the majority of HR leaders, academics and business leaders surveyed classified an ‘older worker’ as someone aged between 61 and 65.

Older workers can be a valuable resource for organisations. Photo: Getty

 Stereotypes

High salary expectations and a lack of technological skills were among the top reasons behind a reluctance to take on older workers in the report, but experts told TND knowledge and experience should trump everything else.

Fiona Macdonald, industrial and social policy director at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, said presumptions that older workers won’t have, or be able to pick up, relevant skills, or are more prone to injury, are stereotypes that contribute to ageism.

The AHRC also found these sort of presumptions have been disproved.

“There are lots of benefits to hiring older workers,” Dr Macdonald said.

“Older workers can often mentor younger workers; older workers will have a lot of knowledge that’s very difficult to transfer into a younger workforce if you don’t have that diversity.”

Dr Macdonald said the onus is on employers to improve their recruitment practices and open their minds to a more diverse talent pool, including in regards to age.

Sidestepping ageism

But older workers can help matters by proactively networking, and thinking “creatively” about what kind of jobs to apply for.

Information such as university graduation dates, or dates in general, on a resume can be a dead giveaway to age.

But you don’t have to include them on a resume if you’re concerned about making it through the first stage of an application process, Ms Anderson said, as long you’re also not misrepresenting yourself or your age.

Hospitality worker

Some industries tend to employ a younger demographic, but they could be missing out on a large talent pool. Photo: Getty

She said upskilling by completing courses to keep skills and knowledge up to date could also be beneficial, as can getting a trusted friend to look over your resume and make sure you’re not selling yourself short.

And if you feel confident and comfortable doing so, feel free to bring up your age during a job interview to address any potential misgivings a potential employer might have.

At 3.7 per cent, the unemployment rate is still significantly lower than it was pre-pandemic, and Dr Macdonald said the tight labour market could lead to more opportunities for mature workers.

“When the labour market’s tight, employers are … willing to think a bit more creatively about diversity in the workforce,” she said.

“The other thing [is that] there has been much more focus on flexibility at work in recent times, and I think that can be really important for some older workers who often have other responsibilities [and] may be, depending on their age, wanting to transition out of full-time work.”

Source: Thenewdaily

Employers are becoming less ageist, changing their view of what age is considered old and increasingly recognising that mature workers are often more reliable, committed and able to cope with stress.

This is reflected in research by the Australian HR Institute and Australian Human Rights Commission, which found many organisations in 2023 defined “older” employees as 61-65 years of age, compared with 50-55 years of age in 2021.

The institute’s fifth survey on attitudes to age among employers – to which 297 HR professionals replied – found fewer employers have an age limit for candidates.

When its regular surveys began in 2014, more than half of employers (52 per cent) had a cut-off age, but only 18 per cent had age limits this year.

But age-related bias continues to exist about older and younger workers, including views that younger workers are less resilient and older workers are not as good with technology.

Only one quarter of employers were open to hiring workers aged over 65 “to a large extent”, while one in six organisations (18 per cent) said they would exclude candidates aged 65 or over from recruitment entirely, despite the fact two-thirds of the HR professionals said they were having difficulty finding staff.

The report, out on Monday, noted that there were 439,000 vacancies in the Australian economy in February 2023 – nearly double the pre-pandemic figure.

Nationally, the workforce grew by nearly 491,000 workers between October 2019 and October 2022, of which 186,000 – or 38 per cent – were aged 55 or over.

Professor Marian Baird, head of the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney, said it was positive to see some changing attitudes from employers on age. “However, it’s very disappointing to still see discrimination occurring.”

“Over-50-women’s employment is the most significant growth in Australia’s labour force. This is also positive, but only if they are treated well and can find good quality, flexible work that recognises all the care demands many have,” she said.

Ben Fordham weighs in on author Jane Caro's 'ageism' claim 

2GB host Ben Fordham has cheekily suggested setting up a GoFundMe page for author Jane Caro and her husband after ageism comments.

Gerwyn Davies, research and policy specialist at the HR Institute, said only four per cent of the growth in employment is among workers aged 55 and above, but they make up 20 per cent of the workforce.

“They have not kept pace with other age groups [in the past year]. This is a massive shift,” he said.

The slowdown was possibly partly because employers were trying to get workers back into offices, and mature workers preferred flexibility.

“Increasing longevity is forcing people to recognise they need to work for longer, and we are seeing growing willingness of employers to take on older staff,” Davies said.

“The perception of what constitutes an older worker has risen, which is good news from the point of view of both employers and employees.”

The survey found the majority of employers think older workers are stronger on loyalty, attendance, durability and “awareness”, while younger workers had better “physical capability, ambition and proficiency in using technology”.

“Many respondents surveyed report no difference between older and younger workers in terms of job performance, concentration, ability to adapt to change, energy levels and creativity,” it noted.

As longer life means Australians need more savings, Age Discrimination Commissioner, Kay Patterson, said it was positive that 73 per cent of employers had employed older workers in the past year.

Employers think older workers are more resilient but less technologically savvy, stereotypes that Kay Patterson says must be broken.
Employers think older workers are more resilient but less technologically savvy, stereotypes that Kay Patterson says must be broken.CREDIT:SHUTTERSTOCK

Changes to working arrangements since the pandemic, when remote working became common, helped employers realise older workers had similar skill levels to younger peers.

“We need to debunk the myths ageism perpetuates and encourage employment across ages: sometimes employers are discriminating against younger people who have ‘not got enough experience’, so it’s not just going one way,” said Patterson, a former senator.

Lyn Tuit, a marketing and communications executive and chair of Alliance Francaise de Sydney, said she had not experienced ageism in the Australian workplace, and that the combination of younger and older people in teams benefits both groups, and their employer.

“One of the joys of working with a younger team is both parties bring something,” said Tuit, who describes her life-stage as at the beginning of her 70s.

“What an employer gets is someone who’s likely to stay, is not on the ladder upwards, so has longevity [at that workplace], and who will be able to mentor younger staff … and provide an alternative point of view.”

A key to maintaining workplace currency is embracing new technology, she said, and staying “up to or nearly up to” levels of proficiency younger workers have.

That discrimination against hiring older workers continues at nearly one in five organisations was “inexplicable” in the face of staff shortages, said Sarah McCann-Bartlett, Australian HR Institute chief executive.

She said it “does not match up with the reality” in workplaces that skills and experience of different age groups complement each other, benefiting the organisation.

“The research shows the perception of [HR] respondents is that older and younger workers have different skill sets, and that creates a more diverse workforce and provides the ability for older workers mentoring younger workers and vice versa,” she said.

The workforce participation rate of people aged 55 to 64 was 69.4 per cent this year, compared with 45 per cent in 1995.

Source: SMH

 

By my 40s, I hope to be very comfortably established in my career, ensconced in a warm blanket of experience that makes me more valuable than ever to my employer.

But here’s a terrifying truth: age discrimination can start affecting you from 45, according to Diversity Council Australia.

Stereotypes about being too rigid, slow or technologically unsavvy abound and, depending on the type of work you do, that can mean work starts to dry up, or you find yourself unable to bounce back after redundancy.

As for those over 50, nearly 30 per cent of respondents to a 2018 survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission said their organisation was reluctant or unwilling to hire anyone over that age.

So if you’re finding yourself edged out at work, you’re not alone.

Executive to unemployed

Tim Hessell was 48 when a company restructure made his role as an HR executive redundant. It took him two years to find another full-time position, despite having 25 years of experience under his belt.

That’s when things really started to unravel.

Finding a permanent position proved impossible, so he took on a series of contract positions.

“While that started out positively, over the years that whittled away until at some stage, in one year, I went for 60 different roles and was unsuccessful in all of them,” Tim says.

“[I had gone] from what once would be regarded as a successful career as an executive, to then being unemployable for whatever reason.”

No-one ever told Tim he was too old to hire. Recruiters were more likely to say, “‘You’re over qualified’ or ‘You’re not the right fit’ or ‘We think it’s better we give this role to someone who can grow through it, rather than yourself’.”

It was a demoralising experience, leaving him anguished and confused. He wondered whether there was something wrong with him.

“Then I looked at other colleagues in similar industries who were [having a] similar sort of experience.” He realised wider factors were at play.

He decided to tackle the problem from another angle: going back to university to do a PhD on the causes of ageism in the workplace.

But not everyone has to take such drastic measures. Here are some first steps to consider, as well as advice on activating Plan B.

Laws around age discrimination

The first thing to know is that age discrimination in Australia is “absolutely illegal”, says Robert Tickner, co-chair of the EveryAge Counts campaign and former Labor Party cabinet minister.

“Every state and territory, plus the national parliament, has outlawed age discrimination,” he says.

“So if people do think they’ve got some clear evidence of discrimination, they may wish to talk to the Human Rights Commission.”

The Commission’s Australia-wide information line is 1300 656 419.

However, complaints can be hard to test, says Age Discrimination Commissioner Kay Patterson.

She shares examples of two cases that were successful:

  • A 56-year-old who stopped getting casual shifts as a kitchen hand. He was told a younger person was replacing him to cope with the busy Christmas period. He received approximately $1,800 in lieu of four weeks’ notice.
  • A 75-year-old who was falsely accused of breaching work safety rules and had his hours cut, after the HR manager found out his age. He was awarded around $4,500.

With all of us bound to age (if we’re lucky), Dr Patterson has this warning for employers: “The climate you set will be the climate you inherit.”

CV and skills check

While the onus is very much on employers to change their attitudes towards older workers, there are a few things you can do to bias-proof your CV.

“You don’t have to put in your date of birth, and you don’t have to put your entire employment history [on your CV],” Mr Tickner says.

“You can skilfully craft a resume that highlights your skills rather than all the jobs you’ve had.”

For the jobs you do list, perhaps stick to more recent roles.

If you’ve had the same role for several decades and now find yourself out of work, consider refreshing your skills.

That could mean doing a TAFE course, or online courses — anything “so you project that your skills remain relevant today,” Tim says.

Also think about how you can demonstrate the depth of your knowledge and experience.

“Older workers sometimes take a lot of what they’ve done for granted,” Tim says. “They never realise quite what they know and the insights they can bring to bear.”

So consider how to convey that — “Not in a way that positions you as, ‘Back in the old days, this is how we did it’, but in a way that people say, ‘Oh, I never thought about it that way.'”

Look after yourself

Being unemployed is stressful at any age, but there’s evidence that older workers experience longer periods of unemployment between jobs. Think of Tim’s two-year stint looking for work after he was made redundant the first time.

“The stress of being unemployed, of worrying, can lead to mental health issues and depression and the like,” but keeping fit and active can help you cope, he says.

“You don’t have to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger, or go to the gym seven days a week. Just looking after yourself will be important.”

Mr Tickner also went through a two-year period of searching for work, during which he became “desperately unhappy and lost a lot of self-esteem”.

In addition to regular exercise, he credits the support of close family and friends for keeping him going.

“It’s important people talk to their friends if they’re having tough times. If there’s a need to seek professional help, then do that.” Feeling down is perfectly normal, he adds.

Consider a Plan B

If you’re still struggling, it might be time to think about a backup option — though that may be challenging at first.

“My thoughts being a baby boomer were that life was going to be fairly linear and sequential. You went to school, got a job, worked, then retired. Life teaches you that’s not always the case,” Tim says.

“I’d say, don’t define yourself by the work that you’ve always done. What are the other things that interest you? What are the things that are going to give you some sense of meaning as a person?”

Tim says broadening your sense of identity will help you avoid losing confidence and becoming angry.

“That’s what led me to a PhD.”

Construction worker hammers a nail
Sometimes a plan B is necessary as you age.(Pexels)

There are options for people in manual work too.

“A number of ex-trades people have ended up in retail,” Mr Tickner says.

“For example, there are a lot of older people who work at Bunnings. They have transferable skills gained over a life time in a particular trade or industry, and now they’re using those to help people gain expertise in the shop.”

For anyone reinventing themselves, Mr Tickner has these words of encouragement:

“Take heart and give it a go, because you might be surprised by the richness of life experiences that might unfold for you.”

Coming full circle

Tim sees the irony of being a former HR executive who was edged out of work because of ageist recruiting practises.

Working on his PhD made him realise that he was unwittingly part of the problem he’s now inherited.

“I thought I had been quite innovative [during my time in HR]. What I realised I did was recruited lots of young people, lots of women, lots of people of different ethnic background — but I didn’t recruit many older people.”

Was he ageist himself?

“I was. I didn’t realise it, but I was.”

Part of the problem, he says, is that “sometimes when you’re young, you never realise you’ll get old”.

He’s hopeful his PhD will now put him in a better position to consult organisations on their recruitment strategies.

Source:ABC

The share of the workforce aged 55 or over may be increasing, but that doesn’t mean older Australians are not facing significant barriers and discrimination.

A new national survey has revealed that ageism is on the rise in Australia, with 37 per cent of over-50s now reporting having experienced ageism, which was up from 33 per cent in 2018.

The Council on the Ageing’s (COTA) State of the Older Nation report also revealed 26 per cent of respondents had experienced employment-related discrimination since turning 50 – up from 22 per cent in 2018 when the last survey was conducted.

Last week, YourLifeChoices reported that the share of the workforce aged 55 plus has more than doubled from 9 per cent in 1991 to 19 per cent in 2021 and is projected to reach 40 per cent by 2050.

However, older Australian advocacy group EveryAGE Counts believes the figures from the COTA study show that ageism is becoming a “national crisis”.

EveryAGE Counts campaign director Marlene Krasovitsky said these worrying trends show that ageism is no longer an issue that can be ignored.

“Too many are accustomed to laughing off incidents of ageism as relatively trivial, but we know it’s doing real damage to millions of Australian lives,” Ms Krasovitsky said.

“The fact that 37 per cent of Australians over 50 have been discriminated against should be considered a national crisis. And to see ageism on the rise since 2018 is particularly alarming.

“Most Australians are living longer, healthier lives. Yet ageist attitudes and practices continue to exclude, diminish and marginalise older people. Workforce discrimination, for example, hurts not just older Australians, but the entire community and our economy.”

Ms Krasovitsky said until people started recognising the problem, ageism would continue to rise and that could have a serious impact on people’s health.

“Changing social norms is never easy, but it starts with acknowledging the problem as serious,” Ms Krasovitsky said. “We need to stop shrugging off incidents of ageism and start calling them out.

“The World Health Organization recently found older people who hold negative views about their own ageing will live 7.5 years less, on average, than those with positive attitudes.

“How can you not develop negative attitudes when over a third of Australians over 50 are being discriminated against, and the rest of us are forced to see and hear ageist views on a daily basis?”

While the State of the Older Nation report had some alarming figures on age-based discrimination, it also showed that only 49 per cent of those aged 65 had retired, which was down significantly from 2018 when 60 per cent had retired.

Also, the proportion of people aged 65 to 69 who said they wanted more paid work has doubled from 2018 (15 per cent to 31 per cent)

Those figures may reflect that the Age Pension eligibility age has also changed in that time, but does also demonstrate that older Australians are staying in the workforce longer, but are not getting as much work as they want or need.

According to the survey, 25 per cent of those who are still working do not think that they will ever retire, which was up slightly from 24 per cent in 2018.

Source: Yourlifechoices.com.au

As Australia’s vaccination rate heads towards meeting important targets, economists are no clearer on how the shockwaves caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will play out in the months to come.

There are fears that as business slowly starts to pick up around the country, growth will be slowed by a significant labour shortage, with many older workers, who may have lost work, choosing not to return to the workforce.

A CommSec Economic Insight analysing detailed labour force data has found that lockdowns in NSW and Victoria have scrambled the figures, but appear to point to many older Australians not returning to the workforce.

The report explains that prior to the pandemic, one of the major reasons that Aussies were not employed or looking for jobs was that they had retired and were out of the job market.

 In April 2018, a record 38.7 per cent of people aged 65 and over said that they were ‘permanently not intending to work’, which was a significant increase from the 33 per cent that answered that way in September 2014.

Prior to COVID-19, the figures showed a reassessment, with the proportion of those not in the workforce because they were retired falling from 38.7 per cent to a three-year low of 35.3 per cent in July 2019.

The effect of COVID hitting shortly after this change has made it impossible to determine if this was the start of a trend, the CommSec economists explain.

That is because more people left the job market over lockdown periods because they were not employed but were not looking for work because they were likely to return to their employer when businesses reopened.

That meant that the proportion of those not in the workforce because they were retired hit a record 39.9 per cent of the total in June 2021 and this has since fallen to a low of 36.4 per cent in September 2021.

“If more people are electing to retire, then there are fewer potential workers to fill positions,” Mr James said. “That may mean the job market tightens more than generally expected, putting upward pressure on wages and prices. And that is especially the case if foreign borders stay closed.

“Older Aussies may see greater health risks in being in the job market in the COVID era. And still others may elect to live large given the experience of the past 18 months.

“At this stage data still shows that older Aussies are active in the job market with record participation levels. However, peak levels may not be far away.”

Earlier this year, ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said that employers should turn to older Australians to address labour shortages.

Mr Elliott explained that ANZ had found older workers more effective in customer service roles and better able to empathise with customers in difficulty due to more life experience than younger workers.

In November last year, a research discussion paper commissioned by Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) said that the proportion of workers over 65 would settle at around 28 to 33 per cent and that over-65s would never outnumber younger adults.

Source:Yourlifechoices

Who is going to hire a woman in her 50s?

It’s a question Tracey Ward has been asking herself a lot lately.

The 56-year-old is a self-employed life coach for women, but has seen her income dry up due to the pandemic.

She’s surviving off JobKeeper payments, but when the subsidy is scrapped in March, Ms Ward is afraid she will “really struggle”.

She knows she could get some sort of work – “there are organisations like Bunnings who hire people of all ages”, she said – but she wants something different for herself and fears the lack of attention from the federal government on her age group could signal the end of her career.

While the government has focused on the high levels of youth unemployment borne out of the pandemic, middle-aged, mid-career workers say they have been forgotten.

The unemployment rate for Australians aged over 40 was 3.8 per cent in January 2020 and grew to 5.2 per cent in July before recovering slightly to 4.7 per cent by October.

Some of those stuck unemployed say they are dumbing down their resumes to appear less threatening to potential new employers; others, like Ms Ward, wish funding could be funnelled into upskilling rather than hiring incentives based on age.

‘If you’re 40-plus and a woman you just don’t get a new job’

A woman in a red cap and sunglasses leans on a wooden railing over the sea.
Sheena Gulati has been told she’s too qualified for the jobs she applies for.(Supplied)

Sheena Gulati was told many times in 2020 that she was “overqualified” for a role.

The 43-year-old lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.

Before the pandemic hit, she was working as a part-time contractor in accounting and finance.

Of all the reasons to be rejected from a job, being “too experienced” wasn’t something she expected to hear.

“They want someone who is young because I think they think overqualified people will ask more questions and tell them how to do things better,” Ms Gulati said.

She suspects her qualifications have little to do with it.

“It’s your age they’re talking about,” she said.

Ms Gulati felt the competition within the jobs market ramp up, and said she is surrounded by friends and family in their 40s who are struggling to secure work.

It’s become so tough she’s considering a career change.

“I have been thinking about it, but it would be a fresh start. It’s scary. I have been in this line of work for a really long time, my qualifications are in this so it will be hard starting afresh,” she said.

“If you’re 40-plus and a woman you just don’t get a new job.”

Her mortgage, other household bills and the expense of raising two children is beginning to bite and Ms Gulati says she’s frustrated the government appeared to forget about middle-aged Australians.

“Why does the government want to give more benefits to elderly people over 65 but not us? What do you do between 35 and 50? Where do you go? What do you want us to do?

“I think it’s unjust – your partiality is based on age. Why? I have no idea.”

Need a job? Learn to ask

A woman sits at a table smiling into the camera.
Career practitioner Lois Keay-Smith says mature-aged workers can’t rely on what worked for them the first time around.(Supplied)

Career practitioner Lois Keay-Smith has been coaching people looking for a new job for years, and primarily helps people aged 30 to 60.

She said, surprisingly, the pandemic appeared to be the last straw for people looking for a career change.

“It’s highlighted aspects of their work they don’t like. It’s given people some freedom to say, ‘I wasn’t happy anyway and with all these changes I want to go and do what I want to do’,” she said.

Ms Keay-Smith said older workers “definitely” faced challenges, like adapting to a new work environment where competition for jobs was high.

“I find some mature work-seekers fall back on what worked for them last time, but it doesn’t work because there are so many more eyeballs on job ads,” she said.

“But an advantage they have is they have good networks; they’ve been in the workforce and often the work I do is help them activate that network.”

Ms Keay-Smith says one of the best pieces of advice she has is: learn to ask.

“I call it the rise of the returnee – going back to a company you used to work for by tapping into those colleagues you used to work with before,” she said.

“There used to be a stigma around that – you never go back – but that’s changed and both of these things around people are more accepting that things change in organisations quite rapidly.”

Ms Keay-Smith also says she’s heard the ‘overqualified’ response quite a lot when it comes to mature workers.

“[The company’s] main concern is that you are using the job as an entry point,” she said.

“They feel you are not going to stay because it’s not fulfilling and you might get bored.”

Her advice for people who do want to scale down their role is to be honest.

“If you know you are going to get the overqualified response, you do have to address the elephant in the room and say why you are attracted to this role.

“It’s about positioning yourself as a stayer or someone who can contribute a lot in a short space of time.”

Ms Keay-Smith’s top career advice is:

  • Use your networks.
  • Get comfortable being on camera. Practise interviews on Zoom with a friend.
  • Don’t be afraid to go back to a company you used to work for.
  • Get up to speed with the latest interview techniques.

Older workers want to upskill

Hands are seen on the keyboard of a laptop.
Tracey Ward doesn’t want a handout, she wants to learn new skills to improve her business.(Unsplash: Thomas Lefebvre)

While Ms Ward believes an incentive to hire young people is great, she says helping people who are mid-career would have a greater benefit overall.

“Younger people have time to try things and fail and learn from it, but it becomes more scary when you’re older and have a mortgage to pay and have no back-up plan,” she said.

“You’re very conscious of your superannuation for retirement.

“I am very proud to be a woman in my 50s, but I know women who don’t let their hair go grey because if their company finds out how old they are they go in the redundancy pile.”

Just like Ms Gulati, Ms Ward has heard employers say they don’t want to hire qualified, older workers because they are afraid they will “make waves”.

She has friends who have pared back their resumes after being told they are “too experienced” for a role.

“It’s desperate and very real for many especially women; grey-haired men are classed as distinguished and experienced whereas grey-haired women aren’t. We are not revered for our wisdom.”

Ms Ward doesn’t just want to be hired, she wants to upskill to remain relevant in the ever-digitising workplace.

“Everything is going online and into a digital space so fast and some older people are being left behind because there’s no time or money to reskill,” she said.

“I have just spent the past hour trying to work out how I record myself whilst I’m recording a presentation on the Mac, so there’s endless [challenges].”

Sometimes she laughs it off. Other times it’s overwhelming.

Ms Ward said an upskilling program where companies provide pro-bono work for older people to learn digital skills would go a long way, and be much more helpful than just being hired by a company because there’s a monetary incentive.

“I’m not talking about someone from Centrelink showing me how to do it for half an hour on video. I’m talking about someone who is at the head of their game getting a tax incentive to help me step up my business,” she said.

“And then I could employ people so it could be a win if other companies were encouraged to help people like me because I don’t have the funds to do it myself.

“I don’t want a free handbag. I want my business to be really successful. I’d happily be the pilot for it.”

Have you been rejected for a job because you are ‘too qualified’? Does the system discriminate against older Australians?

Youth employment subsidy may cause significant collateral damage.

Older workers are already losing their jobs as a result of the federal government’s JobMaker initiative, according to Ian Yates, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing (COTA).

“We are very worried,” he said. “Already we’ve seen reports of older workers being laid off so they can be replaced with JobMaker workers.”

Mr Yates said COTA, an advocate for the rights of older Australians, had heard from “several” mature-aged workers being given notice as their bosses looked to take advantage of the JobMaker subsidy, introduced during the recent federal budget to counter youth unemployment.

JobMaker aims to create 450,000 jobs for young people, who’ve been four times more likely to lose their jobs or have their hours cut during the coronavirus pandemic. It offers $200 a week for businesses to hire workers under the age of 30, who are currently on JobSeeker, receiving a Youth Allowance or the Parenting Payment for at least 20 hours per week. The subsidy is $100 a week for workers aged 30 to 35. All businesses, except for the major banks, can access the scheme, which will be available for up to a year.

The Guardian reports: “Treasury officials revealed the conservative estimated benefit of the JobMaker hiring credit on Monday, ahead of a snap inquiry likely to spark calls to legislate more safeguards to the program.”

When the subsidy was proposed, ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said JobMaker had many flaws that “hadn’t been thought through”.

Ms O’Neill was concerned that older workers would be replaced by several younger ones.

“You’ve increased overall headcount and payroll, but replaced older workers with younger ones,” she told The New Daily.

“The employer will get double the wage subsidy if they employ two workers for 20 hours a week than if it was one for 40 hours. There’s no requirement for secure jobs or full-time jobs. They could hire them for a short period and replace them with another worker.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt wanted to see details of the scheme, concerned it might worsen the unemployment crisis. And Labor leader Anthony Albanese was concerned 928,000 jobless people aged over 35 would be disadvantaged.

Mr Yates sought a subsidy for older workers.

“Many mature-aged workers who are out of work due to the pandemic are facing disastrous personal circumstances. The Liquid Assets Waiting Period means they must spend their savings before they can get help: savings they will need in retirement,” Mr Yates told senior.com.au.

“Australia needs urgent action, or we’ll push a huge group, mostly women, into poverty in old age.”

Mr Yates supported the scheme but said mature and older workers were “equally vulnerable”.

He said people aged 18 to 24 and over-55s were most in need, and older people took twice as long to get a job.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that the headcount and payroll of businesses needed to be higher after they hired people via JobMaker. He said this “integrity test” would ensure older workers were not exploited.

However, there is already rampant age discrimination in employment, said Professor Marian Baird, who heads work and organisational studies at the University of Sydney.

Prof. Baird told the ABC that JobMaker provided an incentive for employers to “cherry-pick people of a certain age”.

She feared it could encourage employers to “abandon older people in the labour market”.

“So, you could substitute someone who is 40 with someone who is 22.”

Prof. Baird said it was “a recipe for casualisation” because employers were only required to hire people for an average of 20 hours a week over a quarter to qualify for the subsidy.

“Someone could work 30 or 40 hours a week, none the next,” she said. “There’s no indication jobs have to be permanent or ongoing.”

Professor Andrew Stewart, an employment law specialist at the University of Adelaide, said the scheme would be difficult to police.

Anglicare Australia’s annual Jobs Availability Snapshot found that disadvantaged jobseekers, including older workers, were competing with more people for fewer jobs.

This year, eight jobseekers are competing for each entry-level job. If all jobseekers are included, there are 106 jobseekers for each entry-level job.

There are also 1.63 million under-employed Australians who could also be competing for these jobs.

“If we’re serious about helping people, we need to create jobs that match their skills – instead of forcing them to compete for jobs that just aren’t there,” said Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers

 

Source:Yourlifechoices.com.au

Will Brodie Journalist

Youth employment subsidy may cause significant collateral damage.

People waiting for job interview in office

Older workers are already losing their jobs as a result of the federal government’s JobMaker initiative, according to Ian Yates, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing (COTA).

“We are very worried,” he said. “Already we’ve seen reports of older workers being laid off so they can be replaced with JobMaker workers.”

Mr Yates said COTA, an advocate for the rights of older Australians, had heard from “several” mature-aged workers being given notice as their bosses looked to take advantage of the JobMaker subsidy, introduced during the recent federal budget to counter youth unemployment.

JobMaker aims to create 450,000 jobs for young people, who’ve been four times more likely to lose their jobs or have their hours cut during the coronavirus pandemic. It offers $200 a week for businesses to hire workers under the age of 30, who are currently on JobSeeker, receiving a Youth Allowance or the Parenting Payment for at least 20 hours per week. The subsidy is $100 a week for workers aged 30 to 35. All businesses, except for the major banks, can access the scheme, which will be available for up to a year.

The Guardian reports: “Treasury officials revealed the conservative estimated benefit of the JobMaker hiring credit on Monday, ahead of a snap inquiry likely to spark calls to legislate more safeguards to the program.”

When the subsidy was proposed, ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said JobMaker had many flaws that “hadn’t been thought through”.

Ms O’Neill was concerned that older workers would be replaced by several younger ones.

“You’ve increased overall headcount and payroll, but replaced older workers with younger ones,” she told The New Daily.

“The employer will get double the wage subsidy if they employ two workers for 20 hours a week than if it was one for 40 hours. There’s no requirement for secure jobs or full-time jobs. They could hire them for a short period and replace them with another worker.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt wanted to see details of the scheme, concerned it might worsen the unemployment crisis. And Labor leader Anthony Albanese was concerned 928,000 jobless people aged over 35 would be disadvantaged.

Mr Yates sought a subsidy for older workers.

“Many mature-aged workers who are out of work due to the pandemic are facing disastrous personal circumstances. The Liquid Assets Waiting Period means they must spend their savings before they can get help: savings they will need in retirement,” Mr Yates told senior.com.au.

“Australia needs urgent action, or we’ll push a huge group, mostly women, into poverty in old age.”

Mr Yates supported the scheme but said mature and older workers were “equally vulnerable”.

He said people aged 18 to 24 and over-55s were most in need, and older people took twice as long to get a job.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that the headcount and payroll of businesses needed to be higher after they hired people via JobMaker. He said this “integrity test” would ensure older workers were not exploited.

However, there is already rampant age discrimination in employment, said Professor Marian Baird, who heads work and organisational studies at the University of Sydney.

Prof. Baird told the ABC that JobMaker provided an incentive for employers to “cherry-pick people of a certain age”.

She feared it could encourage employers to “abandon older people in the labour market”.

“So, you could substitute someone who is 40 with someone who is 22.”

Prof. Baird said it was “a recipe for casualisation” because employers were only required to hire people for an average of 20 hours a week over a quarter to qualify for the subsidy.

“Someone could work 30 or 40 hours a week, none the next,” she said. “There’s no indication jobs have to be permanent or ongoing.”

Professor Andrew Stewart, an employment law specialist at the University of Adelaide, said the scheme would be difficult to police.

Anglicare Australia’s annual Jobs Availability Snapshot found that disadvantaged jobseekers, including older workers, were competing with more people for fewer jobs.

This year, eight jobseekers are competing for each entry-level job. If all jobseekers are included, there are 106 jobseekers for each entry-level job.

There are also 1.63 million under-employed Australians who could also be competing for these jobs.

“If we’re serious about helping people, we need to create jobs that match their skills – instead of forcing them to compete for jobs that just aren’t there,” said Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers.

Have you experienced ageism in the workforce? Do you think JobMaker will disadvantage older workers?

 

Source:Yourlifechoices.com.au

Older unemployed and underemployed workers struggling to find roles due to ageism in recruiting

Many older applicants report being rejected for jobs because of “Cultural Fit”

Answer this question: How easy is it for you to strike up a good conversation with your younger colleagues in the office kitchen?

It may seem like a strange question, but that’s a benchmark some companies are using to decide who to hire, one Sydney-based recruiter tells us, and the assumption is that older Australians won’t know what to say to their younger colleagues.

When PM spoke to 44-year-old John Allie last month his confidence had begun to take a hit because after more than 100 job applications, and 30 final round interviews, the feedback was always the same.

“You interviewed well, they really liked you, but they didn’t feel you were a cultural fit for the role,” Mr Allie said.

“I mean what does that even mean?”

Mr Allie feared it was a bit of a catch-all comment to imply he wouldn’t get along with his younger co-workers.

So, PM asked those involved in the hiring process if Mr Allie’s fears were well founded.

“The candidate you were talking about saying it’s used as a bit of a catch-all is true,” Mark Smith, the group managing director of recruitment firm people2people, said.

He shared his own example of a middle-aged candidate being passed over for not being the right cultural fit in a call centre.

“We had a more mature guy that went in for the job,” he said.

“That’s the way the client described it to us and that’s how we had to pass it onto him.”

In this example, the company went with a younger candidate.

“The reality is that they asked him how are you going to deal with this particularly stressful job with the inbound calls,” Mr Smith explained.

“He said, ‘well I would engage in some banter in the kitchen with my colleagues’.

“That’s when the [company] turned to us and said, ‘you know what, he’s probably not going to be able to engage in the banter in the kitchen with his colleagues because he really won’t have too much in common with them to talk about.

“So they went with another candidate who happened to be younger.”

Young favoured for tech-heavy roles

But it’s not just navigating office banter that’s tripping up older Australian job candidates, said Kathryn Macmillan, the managing director of 923 Recruitment.

Her team places white-collar workers in finance, administration, sales, marketing and technical roles, from entry level to senior management.

She told PM that, for many admin and tech-heavy roles, companies are actively preferencing younger candidates.

“Perfect example of that is Single Touch Payroll,” she said.

“People in accounts need to be able to navigate a huge amount of software: MyGov ID, Single Touch Payroll, and it’s really quite complex.

“So it’s that ability to be proficient in that technological use.”

PM asked Ms Macmillan if she was seeing a preference from companies for younger people to take on those roles as opposed to older people who perhaps aren’t “digital natives”.

“So for people who are older it’s very important that they address that perception.”

Figures from the partly government-funded Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research show 18 per cent of workers aged 55-64 believe their organisation discriminates on the basis of age in recruitment and selection.

This preference for younger candidates is starting to show up in the number of older Australians being forced onto government assistance programs.

Australians aged between 45 and 65 now make up about half of all unemployment support recipients, with more than 330,000 on the welfare payment as of September last year.

‘Pick a footy team to follow’

Recruiter Mark Smith said there was definitely a need for older Australians to work on their job skills, but also called on the Government to establish workplace age diversity targets to combat the problem.

Age discrimination commissioner Kay Patterson told PM a large number of companies were breaching the law by discriminating on the basis of age.

PM asked Dr Patterson if the Government had any plans to set an age diversity target, at least for the public sector.

“I don’t know if setting targets is the way to go about it,” she said.

“My team here have been working on training programs for the NSW State Government to encourage their recruiters to look towards a multi-generational workforce and making sure there’s diversity — not only in terms of gender — but in terms of age as well.

“I think it’s about educating employers that they benefit from having a range of age groups.”

In the meantime, Mark Smith’s advice for underutilised or unemployed older Australians is to be specific when asking for feedback from recruiters.

“Ask the recruiter ‘what particular competencies was I lacking?'” he said.

“‘How would you describe the culture?’ and get them to describe it back to him.”

Oh, and pick a footy team to follow … seriously.

“What that means is that if you’re going to work in an environment where you’ve got a lot of people who are interested in AFL, if you’ve moved to Melbourne, you’ve got to pick up a team.”

source: ABC

Older Australians struggling to make ends meet or looking to boost their quality of life are flooding the national jobs market in record numbers but many are finding their skills and experience unwanted by prospective employers.

Special research into the changing nature of the jobs market reveals people over the age of 65 are the single fastest growing age group securing work, up by 11 per cent over the past 12 months alone.

There is a record number of older Australians in the workforce but they have also seen a huge jump in unemployment for those seeking a job
There is a record number of older Australians in the workforce but they have also seen a huge jump in unemployment for those seeking a jobCREDIT:PETER BRAIG

At the same time, the general workforce has lifted by 3 per cent.

There are now a record 610,000 people 65 or older holding down part or full time work.

But despite the large increase, many older Australians are finding it very difficult to get work with a 39 per cent jump in the number of unemployed over 65s looking to tie down a full time job.

Unemployment across 65-year-olds looking for any type of work has jumped by almost 28 per cent. Across the general population it fell by a full percentage point over the past year.

West Australian workplace diversity expert Conrad Liveris said there were a range of issues that were seeing so many older Australians enter the workforce and then struggle to get the job they wanted.

Older Australians are facing a battle to get back into the workforce, says Conrad Liveris.
Older Australians are facing a battle to get back into the workforce, says Conrad Liveris.CREDIT:AFR

He said many were returning to work to maintain a decent quality of life, discovering they did not have enough cash stored away for retirement.

This was a generation that did not have compulsory superannuation through their entire working lives and women in particular are at risk of reaching their mid-60s without a large nest egg to see them through retirement.

Mr Liveris said there was also evidence of early retirees who have discovered they missed work and, with demand relatively strong across the jobs market, have gone back for employment

 “The 65-plus age group is caught between a transition to a new retirement system, a changing labour market and an economy which still values their skills,” he said.
Advertisement

“And also, they’re not dying. Their health is pretty damn good. They are not going anywhere.”

The law is also keeping them in work longer. Last month the age at which a person can access the pension was increased to 66 from 65.5 years.

Older Australians aren’t just flooding into the workforce. They’re also taking on more than one job.

Separate figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that between 2011-12 and 2016-17 the proportion of people holding down more than one job grew by 14 per cent.

But among those over the age of 60, the increase was 18 per cent.

Source: The Age