I like the author's optimism. I applaud the research he quotes

BUT

None of this has been read or absorbed by the recruitment agencies and I doubt any has been accepted by many companies based on my experience as a 59 year old who has been applying for jobs for the last 2 years with basically no responses until I "re-worked" my CV to leave out the first decade or two of experience. Then , magically, requests for interview commenced. If a telephone interview, no followup. In face-to-face interviews, one could often see a marked change as one was met and introduced when the applicant's age was realised.

I have gathered in speaking with others of my age that these experiences are not unique to myself.

I haven't given up and gone quietly into retirement. Instead I have established my own business and am now working productively with several clients and looking to expand.

When I read articles like this I never know whether to scream, cry or laugh when I look around at the real world of jobs and work.

ps: don't get me started on recruitment companies and their general practices like NEVER returning a phone call etc etc...

DKit

The mature age worker reform is probably one of the few that has a chance of getting up. The demand for more productivity will come from the economy so the foot will be on the neck of every executive in Australia to retain older workers and take on mature aged staff.

I agree with DKit that HR recruitment companies are a major problem and many need to be investigated by Government. Many are plainly sexist and ageist in their selection protocols. They always say they are 'under orders from employers' not to hire 50+ workers. They should be playing a leading role in educating employers - not as toadies.

I don't define any productive difference between younger and older workers. I reckon over the next 20 years or so, as workforce entry demand drops off from younger workers, that they will be in the box seat re salaries. About time.

Well written article and 2 interesting comments so far. Firstly I agree and can vouch for the loyalty and retention factor of the more mature worker. Those who have mortgages and other commitments like family are not only less likely to change jobs on a whim but are also more inclined to work diligently to retain their job and hopefully gain promotion and salary rise.

As a self-employed person I can relate to dkit and wish him/her every future success. However I am feeling lately that it's coming to the time where I would like to abrogate the pressure and responsibility of being an employer. To revert to being on someone elses payroll, walking out the door after an honest 8 hrs and switching off in the knowledge that my work day is over, nothing further to concern me, is beginning to appeal. Along with the thought of 4 weeks annual leave and steady reliable income ...

My 'employ-abilty' however is a concern and I think I will be testing the waters before making any abrupt decisions. One advantage is knowing quite a lot of other employers who know me - which may well provide opportunities that many mature age job seekers lack.

It remains to be seen.

I'm amused by this phrase in the article - 'might have trouble with the IT'.

This is definitely something that comes up all the time. GenX seem to have some notion that IT is all about them. As I often point out to them when I hear such comments expressed - 'who do you suppose invented all this stuff?'

It's nice too, to see their jaws drop when I'm working in raw code in a text editor, writing programs and scripts, when the best they can come up with is a few novel hotkey combinations in Word or have an indepth group-talk about how to set a ringtone on an iPhone.

So who is it that has trouble with the IT?

My son, a very young looking GenY, got a lot of laughs one day when he passed the remark - 'What are the GenX-ers going to do when they wake up one day and discover they're old?'

Now that's a good question.

meanwhile we have a growing generational group who are not fit for employment due to welfare dependancy and all that goes with it. The Mining industry has so many workers that are drug addicted because they would have no hope of filling jobs with 'çlean' employees.

...I liken this article to something I may have read ten or fifteen years ago: Full of optimism and hope but relating a history of no hope for unemployed aged, simply because it shouldn't!(let me add my own IMO)

...Another amazing quote is the predicted need for income support for comfortable retirement viz $40k PA IF owner of a home, with $400k in the bank; shudder to think how the poor survive. These figures and the direction of the article "smack" of lack of personal confidence and an over-reliance on the comfort zone of good times.

...This nonsense is so far away from reality as to be laughable. Resilience is the essential ingredient of retirement. Its a whole NEW world totally unrelated to work, just get used to it!

This is a well written and well researched article. I own and operate the only national job board specifically with age-friendly friendly employers - www.olderworkers.com.au and know how difficult it can be for job seekers over the age of 45. We have over 1000 companies registered and growing daily, so organisations are starting to realise the benefits of older workers. This issue is going to become more and more serious as the population ages, and there is no doubt the Government is going to have to do more to encourage employers, and to sell the benefits of a diverse workplace/workforce. The feedback from our 13,000+ registered jobseekers is that high on the list of problems is the discrimination by younger recruitment staff. We have provided feedback to the Government and also to the new Age Discrimination Commissioner, who we are hopeful will push the Government to react more positively in this area. The Discrimination Act doesn't work, so there needs to be carrots, not sticks for employers.

I was head hunted when I was 52, to salvage a business in trouble, so some people want a known an aging but successful quantity.

About 10 years later, when the major shareholder received an offer he could not refuse, I found myself unemployed & apparently unemployable.

I started a micro business, & bought 2 decrepit old sports cars. Over the next couple of years the micro effort fed us, while I built one great car out of the two. I learnt more in those two years than I had in the previous 20, & made friends, via the net, all over the world, with like minded folk.

Don't ever believe you can't do something, just because you haven't yet. There are hundreds of folk out there just rearing to share their skills & knowledge with you. If you can read, you can do it.

I now have a great car, I could not have afforded, & definitely not justified buying, & have lots of visitors I met on the net.

Don't be frightened of retirement, it's a ball, if done right.

Now if I could just get the kids to come & take back, all their pets that I am minding, I could do some visiting myself.

I am inclined to think that I will be working after the age of sixty-five...and I don't think that this will necessarily be a bad thing.

But then again, I will most likely be doing things I enjoy, health permitting.

I am in agreement with Hasbeen. I anticipate that I will change direction and do something completely different and most likely working for myself. And I don't want to have to rely on others employing me. To do this I am putting in the groundwork now to set up opportunity in the future, be it 10 years time or 20 years time.

Good article Malcolm, also thanks to the positive bloggers; your especially Shamus.

What a great vision - multi-aged workplace with all showing respect for each other. Many of us have experienced age discrimination in the form of disrespect, which seems to be an epidemic in Australia from the top down. Only have to watch Parliament for a few minutes. I spent 6 weeeks/ year of the last 3 years working in East Timor as a volunteer and it's a joy because the Timorese still show respect for each other, especially elders.

Yes I think there is a definite need for seniors' jobseeking websites and Government (Fed) needs to do more in this line. They need to provide help to get into casual / part time work as many of us only want 2-3 days per week paid, needing the rest of the time to be with expanding families, doing our gardening/ crafts and volunteer work. (Maybe in a sane economic system decoupled hobbies growth we could all do this).

All part of a long overdue winding down of the 'money/ the market is god' neoliberal mentality, which brought us the GFC. Leaders of this theory have ruled the world for long enough - many of them are the grasping, selfish 1% 'moneyed class'(who have not earned their wealth - how can anyone be worth 300 times than a basic worker?) with 20% of the income and much more of the wealth. Dick and Smith and Warren Buffet have been showing / telling us what that 'class' needs to do. And our politicians especially those on the right need to get out of their pockets and get behind legislation to 'claw back' some of the wealth they've plundered. Take away their tax breaks; start taxing speculative activities and wheeling and dealing while reducing taxes on real productivity.

PS. Do you $40,000 per person plus you own home to retire on? My wife and I do OK on less than this.

Whilst I have no argument about Hasbeen's post I do however cast my thoughts to people who have physically worked hard & now their bodies need & deserve a rest. It's one thing to ask a fit 65 year old ex bureaucrat, school teacher or lawyer to keep going for a couple more years but if they ask an ex labourer or bricklayer or cleaner etc. to continue then I'd view that as being very close to premeditated murder.

Give me a break, the next forty years? who's kidding who. Predictions are a total waste of time and money when you stop and think about it. Did anyone predict forty years ago what life would be like now anywhere in this world, if we knew todays world chaos forty years ago what would we have thought about it. Certainly we wouldnt have believed it. The world protests by people that are out of work and have the time to protest is a perfect example, riots against authority and corporations are now, this very day and it certainly isnt a strong foundation to predict what the outcomes will eventually be in the coming months let alone forty years hence. Who believes these people.

Westozzi:

...Well who would have predicted since the Americans defeated the Japanese in the Pacific (and the Germans in Europe) in 1945, Australia would be so prosperous and free. It is comforting now to know the Americans are the biggest foreign investor in Australia today and not the aggressive Asians. Let Australians fight to keep it that way for the next forty years or more by supporting them to implement a greater military presence on our shores!

I fully agree there individual.

I have a number of friends in micro business, most one or 2 man outfits. Many of them, like the fencing contractor, the concrete contractor, the shed erector, the truck body builder & quite a few others are getting into physical trouble as they near their 60Th.

Most of them are aware that their continued earning capacity is limited, & are quite worried about it, when some still have some way to go on the mortgage.

Hasbeen,
I suppose you too knew blokes who worked their bodies to the limit only for the Government to hold out their hand for the poor bastard's pension when they khaked it three months after retirement.
I suppose the money was well spent then on some single mother who sends the kids to Child Care while she's in the Pub playing pools & poker machines all day. Other beneficiaries may include drug addicts. All far more deserving then the bloke's widow I guess. Ah yes and, putting the young crap-heads into corrective institutions for them to skil-up on breaking in techniques costs a fair bit too. Nah, I think make us work longer so we won't need to dip into our pension funds. Heaven forbid for us workers to get more than a year of joy in life.

YES!

I'm Gen X, (44) and we're already subject to discrimination, people over the age of 35 are considered, "Mature" workers.

I sometimes do work in partnership with another bloke and when we need a labourer we use a semi retired guy who's 63.
In general older guys who are used to the construction lifestyle are a better use of the budget than youngsters, they make fewer mistakes, they don't hurt themselves as often and what's most important...they TURN UP!
I did work for a kitchen company a few years ago who had an old guy of 70 still working for them, he'd been with the firm since the early 1970's. He could run rings around the young guys for a few hours, he was highly efficient and productive but you'd often find him stretched out asleep on the floor at lunch time or dozing in the cab of the van in the late afternoon.