Legions of older Australians are ‘unretiring’. So, what’s got them out of the house and back into the workforce?
The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force statistics came with a rather startling piece of information.
The ABS found that 40 per cent of the almost half a million people entered the workforce over the past three years were over the age of 55.
Overall, almost one in five Australian workers (19.6 per cent) are 55 or above, up 8.2 per cent over the past two decades.
So, what’s driving older Australians out of retirement?
Terry Rawnsley, urban economist at KPMG, is calling the trend the ‘great unretirement’ and told The Age it was well under way even before the pandemic and the current labour shortage.
He says the trend was initially driven by the overall ageing of Australia’s population, but the improved job flexibility and conditions that have popped up recently are encouraging even more older Australians back into paid work.
“Our labour market is continuing to go gangbusters,” Mr Rawnsley said.
“What we are seeing is a great unretirement, primarily driven by more favourable workplace conditions.
“The fact that workplaces have become more flexible in what has been a tight labour market, with working from home options readily available and more flexible working hours, seems to have made older Australians less inclined to retire, too.”
Ian Henschke, chief advocate at National Seniors Australia, applauded the figures and says older Australians are the answer to the current labour shortage.
He says more needs to be done to encourage seniors back into the workforce, including repealing, or at least reducing, the current ‘punitive’ rate at which pensioners are penalised for working more than one day a week.
“Australia needs to see a lift in its productivity growth and its participation rates,” he says.
“In particular, mature-age participation can play a key role in tipping the balance between the number of future retirees and the number of workers available to support them.
Mr Henschke says increasing the percentage of workers over 55 by just 3 per cent would result in a $33 billion boost to the national economy, or roughly 1.6 per cent of Australia’s annual revenue.
Would you consider ‘unretiring’ and going back to work? Is it becoming a necessity? Let us know in the comments section below.
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