Australia : The 50-somethings are reshaping the labour market

The 50-somethings are reshaping the labour market. Over the past decade, ageing baby boomers in the over-55 year age bracket have increased their share of the workforce from 8 per cent to 11.5 per cent, with their job growth in some years topping 10 per cent, an Age/Sydney Morning Herald study has found.

The employment forecast has found that there are now 1,036,000 Australians aged 55 to 65 in the workforce, up from 613,000 in 1995.

There are 733,000 over-55s working full time, up from 455,000 in 1995. Over the same period, the number of older part-time workers has doubled from 159,000 to 303,000.

Almost 20 per cent of older workers are found in small businesses (including farms) compared with 11 per cent of the general population; and about 14 per cent – almost double the average for all workers – own their business.

The study suggests that income increases with age. Older workers earn on average $45,600 a year, compared with the average wage of $42,300.

One possible reason for this: the largest number of older workers (129,000) are found in the potentially lucrative areas of property and business services. They are also concentrated in higher-paid roles: 192,000 of them are professionals while clerical and associate professionals account for 144,000 each.

There are also big numbers occupying chairman and managing director roles – 4.7 per cent versus 2.2 per cent for the rest of the population.

The study forecasts 43,000 new jobs for the August quarter, resulting in a 9,573,000-strong workforce.

However, as employment slows in the housing construction sector and other blue-collar focused fields, it predicts that the momentum of job growth will shift to finance and insurance, communications, information technology, and property and business services.

The study also notes that April’s labour force statistics showed the surge in full-time jobs had kept unemployment at a 14-year low. Full-time jobs were concentrated in the 25-55 age group. Part-time work was still increasing, but at a slower rate of 2 per cent, compared with the 5.9 per cent annual rate in early 2002. The growth in part-time employment, however, remains ahead of full-time growth.

The biggest rise in full-time employment was in utilities at 7.5 per cent. This was followed by construction (6.8 per cent), transport and storage (5.9 per cent), mining (5.3 per cent) and property services (4.1 per cent). Full-time job shedding occurred in manufacturing (down 4.8 per cent), agriculture (down 2.8 per cent), finance and insurance (down 1.7 per cent) and culture and recreational services (down 1.5 per cent).

Casual labor has risen from 12 per cent of the workforce in 1982 to about 27 per cent. Women and the under-25 age group make up most of the numbers but the rate of male casual employment has almost doubled in the past 20 years, from 12 per cent to 23 per cent.

Full-time jobs rose 1.8 per cent, approaching levels achieved before the 2001 economic slowdown.