Posts Tagged “jobs for seniors”

Over 50? 5 Smart Tips for Landing a New Job

By Chad Brooks, Business News Daily Senior Writer

For many people, finding a new job after the age of 50 becomes more difficult.

After losing a job, older job seekers, compared to younger counterparts, receive fewer job offers, search for weeks longer and are ultimately less likely to find re-employment, according to a new study recently published in the Psychological Bulletin.

Based on data from the U.S. government’s 2014 Displaced Worker Survey, researchers discovered that job seekers over age 50 are likely to be unemployed 5.8 weeks longer than someone between the ages of 30 and 49, and 10.6 weeks longer than workers in their 20s. Additionally, the odds of being re-employed decrease by 2.6 percent for each one year increase in age.

“There’s very robust evidence that as an individual moves beyond age 50, they experience a large penalty toward how quickly they will find a job,” Connie Wanberg, one of the study’s authors and a professor at the University of Minnesota,said in a statement.

There a variety of factors that contributing to these results.[Surprise! Older Workers Have Fewer Senior Moments ]

“The obstacles to re-employment success stem not just from employer views about older workers, but also from age-related differences in knowledge, skills and abilities and the kind of jobs people want,” said Ruth Kanfer, one of the study’s co-authors and a professor at Georgia Tech University. “As individuals age, their skills and abilities change and they may often seek a different type of job.”

Kanfer points to construction workers who carry heavy objects as an example.

“If they change occupations or move into a different field, that is likely going to slow their search,” she said.

Smaller social networks, marketplace needs, search strategies and what workers want out of a new job are among the other factors that are contributing to older workers’ lack of success in finding new jobs.

To help older job seekers increase their chances of finding work, Wanberg and Kanfer offer several tips:

Stay current: It’s critical that workers never stop trying to learn new skills. Even workers who are currently employed should look for ways to grow their skills and stay current with their industry.
Boost job search strategies: Older workers are often unfamiliar with the ways job searches are conducted today. It is important they comb a variety of job search websites and understand the applicant requirements and hiring trends for the type of job they’re looking for.
Know what you’re up against: Older workers should fully understand that it is possible to find a new job, it’s just likely it will take a little longer than expected. Knowing this going into the process will help them stay persistent in their search.
Define your goals: When looking for a new job, older workers need to think about which aspects of a new job are most important to them and set clear goals and priorities to guide their search.
Build social networks: When aging, there is a tendency to narrow social networks, which can impact how long it takes to get a new job. It’s critical to maintain and expand on social networks when getting older.

The researchers believe the study shows there is a clear need for a better understanding of how younger and older job seekers differ in their re-employment goals.

“Job loss is really difficult for older workers, many of whom have probably already been thinking about retiring or slowing down, but had not yet reached a level of financial security to permit retirement,” Kanfer said. “Losing your job at this point in life creates a real conundrum – should I put myself through the strain of a job search or just retire for now?”

The study was co-authored by Darla Hamann, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, and Zhen Zhang, a professor at Arizona State University.

Source: The New Daily

6 Things Older Workers Can Do to Find a Job Faster

By Chad Brooks, Business News Daily Senior Writer

While finding a new job is a difficult task for nearly everyone who has been unemployed, it’s especially tough on older workers, new research finds.

Half of those between the ages of 45 and 70 who’ve been unemployed during the past five years are still out of work, according to a study from AARP. Specifically, 38 percent remained unemployed, while 12 percent decided to stop working.

“As the economy continues to recover and the unemployment rate falls, there are still far too many people struggling,” Debra Whitman, AARP’s chief public policy officer, said in a statement. “Many Americans want to work as long as possible, but our survey confirms that, once unemployed, it can take a long time for older workers to find a quality job.”

Overall, 45 percent of jobseekers over the age of 55 were out of work for at least 27 weeks. The research revealed several strategies that could be contributing to the success of those who have been able to find new jobs.

The reemployed were more likely than the unemployed to contact employers directly and to reach out to their networks of contacts to find jobs. By comparison, the reemployed were less likely to rely on relatives and friends to find out about job opportunities.

Other strategies that were effective for those who found work included:

Using a headhunter
Consulting professional associations
Checking online job boards
Using online social networks
Visiting a public employment agency

When searching for new jobs, older workers need to be prepared to find a position in a new field. Occupational change was a common occurrence among the reemployed, with more than half having a job different from the one they had before becoming unemployed.

“Some of those ‘occupational transitions’ may have been the result of a decision to do work that was more personally rewarding and interesting,” the study’s authors wrote. “In most cases, however, the change was probably necessary to find a job.”

Finding new jobs, however, didn’t always translate into a return to normalcy for older workers.Among those who did find work, 48 percent were earning less money than in their previous jobs. The study revealed that the longer they were out of work, the larger the impact it had on their earning power. Nearly 60 percent of the reemployed who suffered a long-term spell of unemployment were earning less in their current job, compared with 41 percent who had been among the short-term unemployed.

While they may have suffered financially, not everything about their new jobs was a step backward for older workers.

Nearly half had better working conditions, while nearly 40 percent said the number of hours they worked and their shift were better. The study also discovered that roughly one-third of the reemployed said their current jobs provided more use of their experience, education and skills, more autonomy and more responsibility than their old jobs.

“As the results of this study indicate, the unemployment experiences of older workers are varied and their outcomes uncertain,” the study’s authors wrote. “More detailed analyses of the data are needed to help us better understand the plight of the older unemployed, even as the economy recovers, and to develop meaningful policies and programs to help them.”

The study was based on surveys of 2,492 people between the ages of 45 and 70 who had been unemployed at some time during the past five years.

Source Business News Daily

Long-term unemployment: Sharp rise taking a toll on Australia’s wellbeing

Date: June 6, 2015

Matt Wade

Senior writer

EXCLUSIVE

Australia’s growing long-term unemployment is getting little attention from the Abbott government. Photo: Tamara Voninski

Shadowland: The silent jobs crisis facing the government

The Abbott government faces a growing jobs challenge as the number of people trapped in long-term unemployment hits a 16-year high, taking a growing toll on Australia’s collective wellbeing.

The number of people out of work for a year or more has risen by 18 per cent over the past year to 188,000, seasonally adjusted Bureau Statistics figures show. That’s the highest number since the late 1990s and almost three times more than mid-2008, just before the global financial crisis.

The Fairfax-Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index – which uses a range of indicators to measure changes in national welfare – shows the wellbeing cost of long-term unemployment reached a record $3.9 billion in the March quarter. This was driven by a sharp rise in long-term unemployment in the quarter.

The index’s author, economist Nicholas Gruen, said the result underscored the economic damage caused by long-term unemployment.

“In the last quarter the rise in long-term unemployment cost the economy more than the fall in the terms of trade,” he said. “Yet the fall in the terms of trade is a major talking point of economic pundits. Long-term unemployment is barely mentioned.”

A major economic cost of long-term unemployment is skills atrophy – when skills deteriorate through lack of use and training. But there is also a huge human toll – those out of work for a long period are more likely than others to become socially isolated and suffer mental and physical illnesses.

The rate of long-term unemployment – defined as being out of work for 12 months or more – reached a 13-year high of 1.5 per cent last month, up from just 0.6 per cent in 2008. The overall unemployment rate last month was 6.2 per cent. The number of people unemployed for two years or more reached 92,500 last month, the highest level in the 15 years the bureau has been publishing data on that indicator.

Last month’s federal budget included a $330 million Youth Employment Strategy that will target young job seekers in areas of high unemployment and vulnerable young people most at risk of long-term unemployment. A $1.2 billion wages subsidy scheme was changed to encourage firms to take on older workers.

“The new measures will focus on making job seekers more employable, reducing the costs of taking on new staff, and bringing job seekers and employers together,” the assistant employment minister, Luke Hartsuyker, said.

But the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, said much more will be needed to deal with the “untold but persistent” long-term unemployment challenge.

Overall, the Fairfax-Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index – which provides a broader measure of wellbeing than traditional economic indicators – fell last quarter despite stronger than expected growth in gross domestic product. The index report said the quarterly contraction was driven by “the significant skills atrophy produce by the rise in long-term unemployment.” High rates of obesity and untreated mental illness were also significant drags on Australia’s collective wellbeing last quarter.

The number of people out of work for a year or more fell to 65,000 in mid-2008 but has climbed steadily ever since.

Tony Nicholson, the executive director of welfare agency the Brotherhood of St Laurence, said the rate of long-term unemployment among young people has been rising rapidly.

“The transition from school to work in the modern economy is now riskier than it was two or three decades ago,” he said.

Source: SMH

Older workers face challenges but some employers are responding

Date: June 6, 2015 – 12:15AM

Rachel Browne

Social Affairs Reporter

If you’re over 50 and looking for work you face some tough choices: 15 years on Newstart until you reach pension age and hundreds of job applications which go nowhere. But some large employers are responding writes Rachel Browne

Mature workers Peter Kitson-Crowe 65 (left) and Ronny Brennan 64 (right) at their work, Masters Home Improvement in Casula, Sydney. Photo: Kate Geraghty

At 64 years old and a grandfather of 10, Ronny Brennan doesn’t fit the profile of a typical sales assistant.

While many of his contemporaries are seeing out their 60s on the golf course, Brennan spends his days organising stock and advising customers at Masters Home Improvement in Chullora.

I’m too young to retire but apparently too old to get a job.

Deborah Murray, 58-year-old job seeker

A former locksmith, Bobcat operator and gardener, he tried retirement but his wife ordered him to get back to work.

Mature aged worker Peter Kitson-Crowe. Photo: Kate Geraghty

“I thought it would be hard to find a job at my age but this came up and I jumped at it,” he said. “I want to keep working. I’ve got no intention of retiring.”

His colleague Peter Kitson-Crowe, 65, is similarly motivated: “I’m not going to retire. I’m too young. I want to be here into my 70s.”

Kitson-Crowe was a corporate banker in a time “when you reached 55 you were gone”. The Menai man took a package from his former employer when he was in his early 50s to focus on settling his young daughter into school. After a period of working as a financial consultant and mortgage broker, he decided he wanted a “fresh start” and now works in freight at Masters.

Masters Home Improvement is part of Woolworths, one of an increasing number of large employers actively recruiting workers aged over 50.

Mission Australia chief executive Catherine Yeomans is urging more companies to follow suit to offset the growing ranks of the mid-life unemployed who won’t reach pension age for many years.

“Australia is changing and workplaces need to keep up with that,” she said. “Nowadays, 60 is no longer considered old, people are having children later, and many are paying off mortgages later in life. It is nonsensical to prejudice older workers who bring a great deal of skills, knowledge and expertise which should not be overlooked.”

People aged over 50 comprise more than a third of the long-term unemployed and one-quarter of Newstart recipients.

Brennan and Kitson-Crowe are two of the lucky ones. But it can be a bleak picture for many, according to Judy Higgins, director of Older Workers, Australia’s leading job board for the over-50s.

“The longer they are out of work, the harder it is for them,” she said. “It does affect their self-esteem, it does affect their mental health. They go downhill very quickly.”

Deborah Murray is 58 and has been out of work for more than three years. While caring for her elderly mother in Sydney’s east, she’s applied for hundreds of jobs but refuses to lose hope.

“It is tough. I’m too young to retire but apparently too old to get a job,” she said.

“You get so many knockbacks you get to the point where you just don’t care. You just feel as if nobody wants you. You have to keep trying, though. You can’t give up.”

Murray previously worked in accounting but has been turned down for basic office administration roles.

“Being unemployed is one of the biggest drawbacks in itself,” she said. “Employers look at you and wonder what’s wrong with you.”

IT systems engineer Mark Gerrey, 51, has applied for more than 500 jobs in the past four months, joking that looking for work has become his “full time job.”

With 22 years’ experience in the navy and a decade in IT, he’s learned to decode the language of the job advertisements.

“If they use words like energetic, bright and enthusiastic they are after a 25-year-old” he says. “You may as well not apply.”

Gerrey, of Campbelltown, believes experience and maturity are undervalued by many recruiters.

“I’ve commonly heard that I am over-qualified for a role,” he said.

Buthe, too, refuses to give up on his job search, ever hopeful that some upcoming interviews will lead to work.

Source: SMH

The professor who wants to cut older workers’ pay to make them more employable

Professor of management at London Business School Lynda Gratton was in Sydney for the World Business Forum. Dominic Lorrime

by Misa Han

Employers should experiment with pay cuts and salary freezes for older workers to overcome age discrimination at work, a leading human resource professor says.

But any company that follows her advice would risk a public campaign run by advocacy group National Seniors Association.

Lynda Gratton, a London Business School professor and HR consultancy Hot Spots founder who advises big banks and insurance companies in Australia, said companies should consider not giving employees pay rises as they get older, or even giving them a pay cut.

Ms Gratton, who was in Sydney on Wednesday to address the World Business Forum, said: “I think one needs to be a bit more creative about how we think of age and salary structure.

“One difficulty is in any corporation, because people’s salary goes up every year, the older you are often the more you’re paid and that makes older people more expensive.

“So one of the things we’ve been playing around with is, would it be sensible for people’s salary not to go up just because they’re getting older and that would make them easier to employ? Would it be possible to think about their salary going down and they do more mentoring and coaching work?

“I think we’ve only ever seen age and salary as a straight line that goes up but why don’t we think about it as a line that goes down?”

OUT OF TOUCH

National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O’Neill said her comment was “completely out of touch” with the Australian industrial relations system and he would be prepared to fight against any bank or insurance company that reduced employees’ pay on the basis of their age.

“I would be happy to run a campaign against any institution that chooses to reduce workers’ pay because of their age and I’m sure consumers will react,” he said.

“We recognise the contribution older Australians make in the workplace. They should be remunerated fairly and it’s nonsense to say otherwise. Negotiating pay based on a birth certificate is clearly unacceptable.”

Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan said Ms Gratton’s comments did not apply to the Australian industrial environment.

“In general people are not paid more just because they had birthdays,” she said. “Most people negotiate their pay with their employer.”

Ms Ryan said in some cases workers might want a less-demanding role as they get older.

“Both the employer and the employee may agree on a different role, with a lesser pay package,” she said.

Most banks and financial sectors had been doing well in addressing age discrimination in the workplace, she said.

“They do it because their customers want to deal with experienced officers. So I think banks recognise the value of the experience of older employees to their business.”

LEGAL HOT WATER

Employers who took Ms Gratton’s advice might also find themselves in legal hot water.

Employment law firm Justicia managing partner Sarah Rey warned that employers who gave staff pay cuts or salary freezes purely on the basis of their age exposed themselves to the risk of unlawful age discrimination.

“Ultimately anti-discrimination laws prevent employers from discriminating on a variety of grounds. So if you are treating someone poorly and it has nothing to do with their performance, then that would be discrimination. If you’re looking to treat them less favourably it has to be something other than age,” she said.

More older workers are projected to remain in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. But a survey commissioned by the Age Discrimination Commission found in the past two years more than half of jobseekers over 50 were discriminated against on the basis of age.

The Treasury’s Intergenerational Report in 2015 predicts the workforce participation rate among those older than 65 will jump from 12.9 per cent in 2015 to 17.3 per cent in 2055.

To encourage employment of older workers, the government has introduced a grant of up to $10,000 to employers who hire workers older than 50 who have been unemployed for six months or longer.

Ms Gratton said while she was not aware of companies pursuing her pay strategy, in practice older workers were already taking pay cuts as they quit their jobs and moved into different jobs, such as consultancy roles.

HAPPENS ANYWAY

“I think in labour market it happens anyway because people leave corporations and they get jobs that pay them less. I think in reality it is happening but I don’t think corporations acknowledge that.”

One way of thinking about salary could be linked to child rearing, she said.

“One could actually say the time when people need most money is when they are in their 30s, when they have young kids to look after. When they are getting paid more in their 40s and 50s is actually when they don’t require as much money.”

Ms Ryan said Ms Gratton’s comment about the expenses related to child-rearing responsibilities did not reflect the diversity of the nation’s families.

“Many in their 50s have got their second families. If they have a second family and a second mortgage they would be in a terrible situation.”

Source: AFR

Aussie employers ‘giving up’ on tackling talent shortage

A new study has found that although Australia’s talent shortage is continuing to be a prevalent issue, the number of employers implementing a strategy to deal with it is down by 5% from last year.

ManpowerGroup Australia’s tenth annual Talent Shortage Survey, which interviewed over 1,500 employers around the country, found that 42% of Aussie employers are struggling to fill roles.

Researchers found that employers are stepping away from addressing the talent shortage at a rate of one and a half times their global counterparts.

Lincoln Crawley, managing director at ManpowerGroup Australia and New Zealand called this pattern “alarming and disappointing”.

“Globally we have seen the number of businesses taking on strategies to counter the talent shortage increase, while on home soil this number has dropped dramatically over a 12 month period,” he said. “Australian employers are giving up.”

Crawley advised employers to tie a talent shortage strategy in with offering unorthodox ways of working.

“We are observing a divergence across the economy,” he said. “Employers who fail to adopt non-traditional work practices risk becoming irrelevant to the new generation of workers, while those that innovate will succeed.”

Experts at ManpowerGroup Australia shared the following tips with HC on how to address and tackle a skills shortage:

1. Have strong training and development programs so staff are continuously learning and growing

2. Establish realistic and regular incentive programs

3. Promote a family-friendly and flexible work environment while maintaining high standards of work and results

4. Utilise new parents returning to the workforce and consider job sharing to maximise the flexibility they are offered

5. Consider older staff – hiring over 50s qualifies companies for a government subsidy

6. Consistently work on strengthening your company’s point of difference to attract and retain the best in the industry

7. Communicate with your people regularly

8. Don’t forget to praise staff when they do a good job

9. Make efforts to inject fun into the workplace so people are excited and motivated even when times are tough

10. Design medium to long term career plans to give staff visibility to all potential career paths

Employers around Australia reported that the most difficult roles to fill were management and executive positions, skilled trades and sales representatives. Skilled trades have remained the most challenging positions to fill for nine years.

“While skilled trades have continued to be the hardest roles to fill for nearly a decade, the demand profile has changed in recent years,” said Crawley. “Demand for roles like electricians and mechanics has eased, while a shift in infrastructure developments across the country is seeing demand outstrip supply for specialist engineers, labourers and skilled trades in infrastructure and construction.”

He added that one of the biggest challenges posed to employers was finding “ready-made specialists, rather than investing in developing existing skills”.

Crawley also called for employers to ensure that IT workers are being invested in so that they can reskill to remain relevant, adding that many IT roles are becoming obsolete.

According to the study’s findings, employers are aware of the constraints that skills shortages are putting on their company despite their apparent reluctance to take action.

Forty-six per cent said that skills shortages were reducing their ability to serve their clients, 33% said they were a hindrance to their organisation’s productivity and competitiveness, and 23% said it lowered employee engagement and morale.

The ten most difficult jobs to fill in 2015:

1.     Skilled trades
2.     Management / executives
3.     Sales representatives
4.     Engineers
5.     Technicians
6.     Labourers
7.     Accounting and finance staff
8.     Drivers
9.     IT Staff
10.   Secretaries, PAs, receptionists, administrative assistants and office support staff

Source: HC Online

Employers need more than money to hire older workers

Beyond being told or incentivised to hire older workers, employers need to feel they are making the right decision. Image sourced from Shutterstock.com

With Australia’s official retirement age heading to 70 by 2035, this year’s federal budget brings forward incentives designed to encourage companies to employ older workers.

The Restart Program, which provides $10,000 to employers to hire over 50s will have payments accelerated, and the government will also provide incentives to older unemployed people to retrain in order to get a job.

The measures go part of the way to addressing the challenges faced by older workers, but come amid ongoing age discrimination in Australia.

Empirical evidence suggests negative stereotypes are at the heart of this form of ageism. Such stereotypes are found among employers as well as the community at large.

Ageist attitudes and related stereotypes are a general socio-cultural phenomenon and are not confined to the workplace, meaning employers’ attitudes toward older workers are simply a reflection of a broader worldview. Being in positions where their decisions have direct impact on the lives of older workers, however, means their views attract more attention than those of other people.

It is not the intention of employers, who typically seek the best person for the job, to discriminate against older workers. But stereotypes are activated automatically in response to cues. For example, a person’s age, appearance, or date of graduation from school are all relevant cues that impact perception and judgement. Despite best intentions, employers’ judgement can be automatically biased by ageist stereotypes so they may miss the best person for the job in cases where it happens to be an older worker.

Common interventions to address ageism toward older workers have been in the form of policies, legislation, and fact sheets, with the former aimed at enforcing fair practice and the latter providing information. Policies, however, provoke resistance to change when people are being told to think and/or behave in particular ways and feel their free choice is threatened. Fact sheets, incongruent with employers’ worldviews, are often perceived as incorrect.

Getting past stereotypes

There are however ways to promote positive attitudes toward older adults among employers and increase the likelihood of them being hired.

One intervention tested successfully involved inducing cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a mentally unsustainable state that is evoked when a person holds two contradictory thoughts and/or beliefs simultaneously.

People are naturally driven to reduce cognitive dissonance, so much so that it often results in them either changing their attitude or further affirming their initial positions.

In our study we made employers aware that discriminating against older workers was potentially counterproductive and against our culturally enshrined value of a “fair-go”. Having been asked to endorse this view and provide their names, employers were advised they would be listed as people who opposed hiring discrimination against older adults and who were committed to non-discriminatory practice. This meant they would ultimately experience cognitive dissonance in response to activation of negative stereotypes in subsequent considerations of older workers.

We also developed fact sheets based on common misconceptions about older workers. Combining the cognitive dissonance aspect with the fact sheet produced the strongest effect.

Employers who participated in this part of the study showed more positive attitudes toward older workers overall, stated that they were more than likely to hire older workers, and considered age to be less important in making hiring decisions.

Attitudes are said to be relatively resistant to change, but by refuting misconceptions and enabling cognitive dissonance to be evoked in employers, we enabled them to maintain a sense of self-integrity as well as professionalism because these were now aligned with fair treatment of older workers.

Ultimately, it was the internal motivation of hiring decision makers that made the difference, as opposed to dictating to employers how they should behave. The next phase is to discuss various ways the intervention could be implemented.

Mature-age contribution worth billions while giving back

Rachel Kent, a former IT consultant, volunteers to help other seniors in Sydney.

The employment of Australians aged 45 and older is said to be worth $27.4 billion each year, through reduced human resources costs.

A new study shows that workers older than 45 help reduce turnover, bringing down recruitment and training expenses, and also serve as a valuable source of informal care while giving back to the community through volunteer work.

Research funded by the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre puts the economic value of these contributions at $65.7bn per year, providing a “significant offset” to perceived sustainability issues posed by an ageing population.

The findings, to be released by National Seniors Australia, suggest that a worker aged 45 will remain with an employer 3.7 times longer than a younger worker.

The paper also shows the contribution of Australians aged 45 and older in providing informal care for the elderly or those with disabilities is $20.5bn, while the value of those caring for their grandkids is estimated at $1.5bn.

The involvement of mature-aged Australians in volunteer work is valued at $16.3bn per year, with data showing that 1.6 million people older than 45 volunteer in some capacity for an average of 6.09 hours per week.

Rachel Kent, a 69-year-old pensioner who lives in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, gives her time to help senior citizens develop their computer skills, use emails and navigate the internet.

Ms Kent is a former IT training consultant and says she is happy giving her time to help others, particularly older Australians and women who need to update skills upon re-entering the workforce.

“I would like to help older people because they can feel so isolated if they are not using a computer and today with tablets it’s really so much more simple,” she said.

“It was something I always had in mind in when I was working.

“I also like to help women who want to go back to work for whatever reason.”

Roy Stall, a 71-year-old former naval officer, also volunteers up to six days a month at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle and is still active in Asia as a specialist in maritime English.

“I think we make a contribution to the economy,” he said. “Our economic contribution is not often appreciated and certainly what we can contribute back to the community is not necessarily valued in the corridors of power.’’

Source: The Australian

Ageing workers are a resource of growing importance

Date: May 4, 2015

Philip Taylor, Michael O’Neill and Alison Monroe

Much is known about the labour market situation of older workers but no attempts have been made to collate this knowledge in a way that aids government policy development.

Particularly useful would be consideration of how to engender positive attitude change among employers and older people themselves.

Any policy interest in mature-age workers is to be welcomed. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s recent announcement of its inquiry Willing to Work: National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australians and Australians with Disability presents a good opportunity to push the issue further up the agenda. But is this the right inquiry, and what is preventing concerted government action now?

Labour-market age barriers are in sharp focus internationally as governments, concerned with the economic effects of ageing populations, have acted to encourage longer working lives.

In the coming decades Australia’s workforce will experience a significant ageing and, simultaneously, shrinking, bringing to the fore the issue of the employment of older workers. In combination with declining birth rates, the retirement of a large cohort of baby boomers is expected to reduce the supply of skilled workers, contribute to a lowering of workforce participation rates, and raise dependency ratios.

Addressing workforce ageing is rightly viewed as critical to the nation’s economic performance, with the Treasury’s Intergenerational Reports referring to the need to improve mature-age labour-force participation rates.

Strategy development concerning the best use of older workers by the Australian economy is long overdue. Ageism faced by mature workers is certainly an important barrier to their employment, as evidenced by research undertaken by the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre, but an inquiry centred on this risks portraying older people as victims, taking away any individual responsibility.

Perversely, another risk with the inquiry’s singular focus on ageism and age discrimination is that this may add to the stigma older people may face, confirming public perceptions of them as disadvantaged, and potentially further entrenching ageist attitudes. Also notable is that apparently the inquiry has no interest in ageism and its effects on the young, despite state and federal legislation proscribing age discrimination against people of any age.

A reductionist view of older workers’ labour-market problems as being solely a consequence of ageism also ignores key facets of what is a complex issue. A broader inquiry would be more helpful. This could usefully consider such issues as the employability of older workers and the incentives and disincentives to working provided by the social welfare and pension systems.

Importantly, a substantial amount is already known about the position of older workers in the labour markets of developed nations, including the nature and effects of age discrimination. There is a vast international policy and academic literature stretching back several decades, with major reviews and inquiries undertaken by national governments and bodies such as the European Commission and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

With the field already well ploughed, what then could a new inquiry consider? Much is known about the labour market situation of older workers but there have been no attempts to draw this knowledge together in a way that can effectively inform policy efforts in Australia. Notably, there has been a surge in public policy in the area of ageing and work internationally over more than a decade. Nations such as Finland, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Britain have been particularly active. The challenges these countries are facing are not so different that their actions would not provide potentially useful templates for Australia, where policy work to date has been rather more modest. So the inquiry could usefully take a considered look at what has worked elsewhere.

Particularly useful would be consideration of how to engender positive attitude change among employers and older people themselves. In this regard, internationally several projects targeting industry attitudes to older workers have been undertaken, for example, Age Platform Europe, Combating Age Barriers in Employment, and Employment Initiatives for an Ageing Workforce, funded by the European Union, the Finnish National Programme on Ageing Workers, Age Positive, the Employers’ Forum on Age and the Third Age Employment Network in Britain, and the AARP Best Employers International Award in the US.

Such analysis could help increase the impact of the Corporate Champions program, implemented by Labor and retained by the Coalition, which has been one of the more successful ways of creating action by Australian employers concerning workforce ageing. Above all, what is required is a strategic framework containing evidence-based proposals for raising the labour-force participation of older Australians and government will to act. It is to be hoped that the present inquiry will form part of such a holistic approach.

Philip Taylor is director of the Australian Retirement Research Institute, Federation University Australia. Michael O’Neill is chief executive office of National Seniors Australia. Alison Monroe is chief executive officer of Sageco management consultants.

Source: The Age

Budget 2015: rewards for seniors to stay at work

David Crowe

Political Correspondent

Canberra

Joe Hockey in Adelaide. ‘It is hugely important … giving people the chance to work longer’. Picture: Roy VanDerVegtSource: News Corp Australia

Older Australians will get new rewards for finding work and strong incentives to put off their retirement as the federal government recasts its controversial pension savings in a wider budget reform aimed at boosting the workforce at the same time it helps to cut the deficit.

Federal cabinet has agreed to make faster payments of up to $10,000 to employers who hire older Australians as part of an overhaul of job programs to help tens of thousands of people back into the workforce.

A separate budget measure will give people approaching retirement a new incentive to stay at work for a few more years in the knowledge they could collect a bonus when they choose to claim the Age Pension.

The budget will also spare about two million retirees from an unpopular change to pension indexation, making the savings instead from fewer than 400,000 people with substantial private assets.

The tighter pension rules will mean that most of the burden for the savings will come from retirees who not only own their home but also have hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, real estate and other investments.

Ministers will argue that the new approach is fairer than the indexation changes announced last year, which would have seen a gradual fall in the pension when compared with wages over the long term and would have raised fears of pushing older Australians into poverty.

The new approach represents a dramatic softening in Tony Abbott’s message on work and retirement, offering help to those who want to work and giving a reprieve to many elderly voters who were alarmed at the prospect of a cut to their payments.

A major initiative in the May 12 budget will be a more generous payment to companies that hire older Australians, fixing problems in a program called Restart to make it easier for mature workers to get jobs.

Employers currently receive $3000 six months after they have hired a worker aged 50 or over and a further $7000 in stages over the next 18 months, but these payments will be accelerated in the new scheme.

Australians over 50 currently have to wait for six months on income support or the pension before they qualify for the job incentives. That will also be shortened under the new rules.

Another new program will be linked to the scheme to offer incentives for training so that older workers will get more help to retrain and take up a job, helping to prevent them falling back on unemployment benefits or pensions.

Joe Hockey has taken the lead on the assistance for mature workers in the wake of a report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that found one quarter of workers over 50 felt they had been discriminated against because of their age. The Treasurer warned last week that discrimination was far too prevalent, while signalling more recently that the budget would include new measures to help those workers.

“It is a hugely important issue, giving people the chance to work longer,” Mr Hockey said on Tuesday, adding there were a “few things” in play in the budget to address the challenge.

The Weekend Australian has confirmed that the overhaul of the Restart program is one of those new actions and that other measures have also been discussed to give workers more incentives to put off retirement.

A key issue is whether people who keep working beyond the age of 65, and therefore ease the burden on the public purse, deserve a reward when they ultimately choose to claim the Age Pension. Mr Abbott praised an old policy that offered new pensioners a lump sum of up to $49,000 if they had stayed in work and deferred the pension.

Early last month he said that idea was “certainly worth looking at”. Labor closed the Pension Bonus Scheme to new entrants in 2009 because data showed participants would have continued working anyway. Mr Abbott has been considering other ways to achieve the same objective.