Volunteering ACT

The Virtues of Older Workers

 

Quote from Budget Speech - Treasurer Ted Quinlan said in regard to the ACT labour market:

“ Employment growth has been lower than expected this year, yet the number of job advertisements in the Canberra Times newspaper, as reported by the ANZ Bank, reached a record high in March 2004. Employers are having difficulty in filling vacancies and, with strong job growth at the national level, it continues to be difficult to attract strong rates of interstate migration.

It seems to me that the Government and employers are looking to attract school leavers and graduates to the ACT and to retain those that we educate here. This is a reasonable strategy but there are other strategies that need to be developed, particularly in regard to the retention of older workers and the re-engagement of older people into the workforce. If we don’t adopt such strategies we are in for a tough time as our homegrown labour force, in the traditionally recognised sense is not growing.

Let me give you some figures to back up this claim.

The number of 15 to 24 year old people in the ACT (traditionally this is the age group entering the workforce) currently is 52,183. By 2010, just 6 years away the number in that age group will be 50,665. So you can see that our traditional source of labour is in fact shrinking.

On the other hand the number of people in the 50 to 65 year age group is currently 55,271 but by 2010 it will be 63,462.

The ongoing trend in the ACT is towards early retirement or withdrawal from the workforce. In 1986 the participation rate of males aged 55 –59 was about 86% but this had declined to 77% by 2002.

If we can reverse this trend we will go a long way to addressing the emerging problems for the ACT’s labour force.

But in suggesting that this trend can be reversed there are some significant hurdles to overcome.

COTA believes that there is an enormous gap between policy and practice in relation to older workers.

Regardless of the Government’s view of the value of mature workers and the desirability of increasing workforce participation, the fact is that today’s competitive job market for the mature worker is enormously challenging.

Age discrimination is deeply embedded in Australian employment practices and in many aspects of service provision.

Mature workers have been treated harshly as many businesses and organisations restructured over the past 10 to 15 years. Much early retirement is involuntary.

Mature workers now find a hostile labour market as they attempt to regain jobs or rejoin the workforce after an absence.

The hostile labour market for older workers means that:

• around 30 per cent of people aged 50 to 64 rely on some form of social welfare payment
• around 50 per cent of the population aged 50 to 64 have no paid employment
• 50 per cent of people becoming eligible for the means tested age pension are already receiving some form of social welfare payment (Lim-Applegate, 2002, p 8).

The relatively poor participation and high rates of welfare reliance of the population aged 50 to 64 is an outcome of long years of economic restructuring across Australia. The effects are still highly visible and have a direct bearing on present opportunities for mature workers:

Where there has been significant structural change in local communities, the skills and aspirations of mature workers may be out of kilter with the new labour market. For instance, COTA recongises that much jobs growth across Australia, is in aged and community services. Older workers from manufacturing or agricultural backgrounds, for example, may not necessarily see a future for themselves in these growth areas.

The realignment of the skills base of older workers to fit with new and emerging jobs is not an easy prospect. Personal attributes, motivation and suitability are very important considerations and play just as important role as technical skills in terms of many new service industry jobs. The new jobs may require training and certification which can be daunting for older workers who have left school at a young age and have had no contact with the training system since.

However, it is important to stress that inadequate skills for many, are not the problem. Many participants had been through retraining in computer skills or were already highly qualified and relevantly skilled for the new job market. Nevertheless, they experience a great deal of difficulty in terms of finding employment.

Relocation to high employment areas is not an option for many because of family ties and because of the very significant disparities in housing prices between high and low employment areas. The skills of some groups of older workers may not have currency even in high employment areas.

In addition, mature workers are affected by changes in society and in the family. Many people are having first or second families later in life. According to the Department of Family and Community Services, the fastest growing age group for family payments are people aged over 50. Divorce rates are high. The role of women in society is undergoing fundamental changes with many needing and wanting to enter the workforce for the first time or after a very long absence in later life.

COTA believes that there is no easy or simple solution for many of the problems being experienced by mature workers but with creativity and imagination, we believe that there may be ways forward.

We warn that there are no “magic bullets”. The solutions come down to a commitment on the part of Governments to leadership, adequate resourcing and a willingness to try some innovative approaches.

The problems being faced by older workers and job seekers are deep-seated cultural and structural in a workforce and employment service environment that has still not caught up with the ageing of the Australian population and workforce.

The work undertaken by COTA suggests that suggests a need for a rethink of many aspects of labour market policy in terms of an ageing population and ageing workforce.

In terms of the ageing workforce the focus needs to be more about

• improving labour force participation rates rather than reducing unemployment rates
• providing training and skills development which is more aligned to the background and existing skills base of mature age workers
• greater connection to the transitions that many people experience in mid life

In the future, labour market policies will need to take in a broader remit of goals encompassing:

• work to retirement transitions
• attention to genuine lifelong learning options
• innovative welfare and work combinations.
• negotiated activity and outcomes
• diverse service models and choice
• strong mediation of non government organisations (NGOs) between government and older workers.
• voluntarism

COTA believes that Australia needs specialised interventions for older workers to support the mainstream services available through Job Network and Centrelink. While these may be similar in many respects to interventions for younger people they will have a different orientation. It may be that we have a range of generalist services to cover all groups but we also need programs that specialise in mature workers and develop some specific methodologies for older workers.

Similarities across all disadvantaged groups in the labour market cover:

• lack of appropriate skills for the new job market
• inappropriate or out of date job seeking practices
• experience of discrimination along the lines of gender, disability or race.
• language and literacy difficulties

At the same time we note that older workers are characterised by:

• a long past exposure to particular working environments and/or experience in a particular occupation
• an orientation towards retirement and later life
• experience of older-age discrimination in employment
• changing personal and work-related aspirations and for some
• extensive periods out of the workforce.

We have noted that many people are unprepared for the sorts of adjustments that they need to make in the new social and economic environment. At the same time there are few or no supports to assist that adjustment.

While everyone is affected by social and economic changes, there are important considerations in terms of the responses that people in mid-life are able to make to these changes including:

• the need to consolidate one’s financial position with a view to retirement and older age in the short-medium term
• greater consideration of risk-taking (eg establishing a new business)
• the sense of less time available to achieve major goals (eg a 4 or 5 year university degree to qualify for a particular occupation).

With these things in mind older workers must be able to recognise that volunteerism is a practical and legitimate avenue back to the paid workforce.

The opportunities for volunteers are almost endless and this can lead to the development of skills that are relevant and marketable in today’s job market.

Volunteering can provide practical and real on the job type experience and, as we all know, it is easier to get a job if you have a job (either paid or unpaid).

We must combine these opportunities with a campaign aimed at employers espousing the virtues of older workers and of the value of skills obtained on the job as a volunteer.