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.