Re-employing older workers: Ageism reconsidered

In the future, the ageing of “baby boomers” is likely to result in a shortage of skilled labour in Australia, like other western countries. This shortage is due to baby boomers’ early retirement and decreasing national birth rates. In addition, the workforce is ageing, due to improved health, lifestyle, and longevity. There are several consequences of this increased longevity. A consequence of this is that many older workers will find it difficult to adequately fund their longer years of retirement through superannuation and other personal savings, especially where unsound investments have been made. Some older workers may wish to stay in the workforce for longer periods, others might wish to re-enter paid employment after retirement, and still others may involuntarily exit. This paper focuses on the issues of workers extending their working lives, and explores the issues of older would-be workers who wish to continue to work by re-entering the workforce, and whether this is a possibility for them. However, older workers, particularly those seeking to re-enter the workforce, currently find it more difficult to be hired. A common assumption is that low levels of recruitment of older workers are explained by ageism alone. However, this presumes that all older workers experience re-entry into the workforce in a uniform way, and that they share similar expectations and desires regarding work. There currently exists a gap in the literature about older workers’ desire to return to work, and the conditions under which skilled older individuals would be attracted back to work. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study, which investigated the views of older people who had already left the workforce. The data indicated the influence of: the levels of qualification and skills, the availability of suitable part-time work, the impact that barriers emergent from the taxation system have upon access to workplace benefits, and the youth oriented attitudes in the workplace. The paper concludes that older ex-workers find it difficult to rejoin the paid workforce because employers see them as not being the most competitive in a hiring decision, based on “objective” measures. This may be the consequence of the most competitive older workers having already left the workforce, possibly because they have had more financially rewarding or lucrative careers. These more qualified and experienced older ex-workers may have no need or desire to return to the workforce, and thus are not part of any job competition. In addition, older ex-workers will often compete for jobs against not only younger workers, but also other older workers who remain in the workforce. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it may not be simply ageism at work and as this paper will demonstrate, once the meanings older people attach to employment are examined, a more complex picture emerges of the would-be