Yep. Item 1. 15 percent compulsory super now!

The vectors of analysis on this problem are so many, it's hard to know where to start. Education, me thinks. The facts coming out of DEEWR and other agencies speak for themselves. If we want to keep a broad tax base, and to fund future infrastructure and services, we need to keep productivity high. To do that we need to eliminate obstacles to older age re-employment. It's both an economic and social justice issue.

I'm damned if I know why we think people at 65 should retire (unless they want to) or that people with grey hair are 'past it'. These arbitary boundaries to do with age should be swept away.

I'd be interested to know if on-line ads are counted like that as the figures are used as an indice for economic growth (ANZ or Access?). I forget.

Here are your reasons:
1) Technology has made a lot more jobs redundant than have been created. Most are still filled by staff, they have just moved up to management where new processes and activities are created to fill in time.
A few more technology jumps and we are getting close to "android economy": only decision makers and artists needed, manual labor done 90% by machine. We are more than 1/2 way now. Our political system will stuggle with this!
2) The resulting over-abundance of management in relation to non-management (ie. the "talkers" vs "doers" ratio) has created a political culture where back-scratching, hush money (big exec payouts), and bullying are prevelant. I have seen this trend in Government, banking and utilities sectors. The bigger a cock-up, the less accountability.
3) Managing "up" takes precedence over "down". "Up" is where the daggers come from and where the butts that must be kissed are. I work in IT and we have legions of "Project Managers" now that do not even know what Critical Path Analysis (Core PM skill) is! The more senior, the more useless is the rule.
4) The really bad management culture is making organisations really inefficient...leading to a fake "skills crisis".
5) "Soft skills", highly prized by HR departments and consultants are considered essential and "hard skills"(what used to be called "skill") is necessary only for juniors...so if your aiming for the top, you definately do not put "hard skill" on show. Soft skills are relative so you must be "in the loop"...hard for older workers.
6) Since prohibition a large portion of our economy is "black". Lots of "legitimate" busineses ride the black market: Horse Racing, Casinos, and many, many small busnesses. Crime rarely actually creates wealth, so the corruption of our economy due the drugs enforement industry is a net drain. 80% of police budget is due to prohibition alone. Older skilled workers have no place in a blck economy unless they start younger or are part of the family.
In short: unaccountable management, short sighted labor policies.

Good article to which one might add that middle-aged, middle management can be specifically targeted for retrenchment, because the employer can milk the assets from superfunds. Westpac retrenched long serving managers, in the early 1990s, and the actuaries found $700 million dollars for the Bank's coffers. The Bank paid-out simple interst on the contributions, but benefitted from the huge equity built-up in the fund.

yes, and then Westpac wrote off a billion in over valued assets (buildings) in the late 90s.

I know people in their 40s and 50s who are way under employed. They're white collar but have been chucked on the scrap heap. Ozandy is right about technics re manufacturing but not so sure re public service. Could be.

Culling middle management created a flatter organisational structure, saved money on salaries but didn't improve productivity. I'm all for lean or flat structures but blind freddy knows that sooner or later the government will have to increase taxes to fill central revenue to pay for pensions and health care (more likely the former).

They ain't going to like that. No one is going for that option. Pray the mining boom continues for the next 50 years. The dream of self funded retirement will be just that. A dream. Pack 'em in to caravan parks on the outskirts of town!

"Cultural Fit" is the trojan horse for discrimination of any sort. I should know. Throughout my youth I was denied employment many times, passed over for jobs in my skill set while mediocre, less skilled candidates were placed ahead of me because they were younger or more physically attractive, or of a higher socio-economic status than myself.

The extent of the discrimination was so pervasive and persistent that it severely affected my mental health, I had breakdown, and am now a disability pensioner in my mid-thirties, in fair to poor health, losing my teeth due to a third world public dental system, and ironically now and in later years my prospects will be much more diminished because so many recruiters and employers sought to deny me the experience and use of my skills that would have aided my long-term career development. There is no fair go in Australia, I gave up believing in fair gos and compassion years ago.

Could it be that their skill sets are out of date? Marketing has always been a young person's field.

Engineering is so in demand that people in their 70s are paid to work when they want, just to fill vacancies.

It depends whether you can do or be what people need.