A tight labour market and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a big increase in the number of Australians returning to the workforce.

 

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that in April 2021, approximately 619,000 older Australians (aged 65 and over) were employed in the labour force. Of these older workers, three in five (61 percent) were men and two in five were women (39 percent).

 

In the 20 years leading up to April 2021, the workforce participation rate of older Australians more than doubled (from 6.1 percent in 2001 to 15 percent in 2021).

 

The ABS Labour Force Survey in late 2022 revealed that the national workforce grew by nearly 491,000 between October 2019 and October 2022, including the onset of the pandemic and the seismic shifts in the workplace this brought.

 

Of this growth, 186,000 of the new workers, or 38 percent, were aged 55 years or over.

 

The data supports research from US-based organisation Bain & Company that predicts globally there will be 150 million more older workers by 2030. That’s more than ten times Australia’s entire working population and will make up a quarter of the global workforce.

 

By 2030, older workers aged 55-plus will make up one-fifth of the workforce in Australia. 

 

The ABS data also shows increases in labour force participation for men and women over this period have been substantial—the participation rate for older men almost doubled (from 10 percent to 19 percent), while older women’s participation almost quadrupled (from 3 percent to 11 percent).

 

It backs up the suggestion that experiences after retirement can potentially lead to people returning to the workforce. 

 

In 2018/19, approximately 143,500 people in the labour force had previously retired. Reasons those surveyed cited for returning to work included financial need, boredom, and other reasons (that they no longer needed to care for a partner or family member, the death of a partner, or separation or divorce from a partner).

 

In a recent interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, KPMG demographer and urban economist Terry Rawnsley that the labour market is “continuing to go gangbusters”.

 

“What we are seeing is a great un-retirement, primarily driven by more favourable workplace conditions. We have seen a long-term trend of people working for longer, but the impact of the pandemic looks to have encouraged more older people to return to the labour force,” he told the newspaper.
 

And, perhaps it’s just as well, with a study done by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing confirming an association between retirement and physical dysfunction among men and women, where retirement was associated with a 5-14 percent increase in difficulties with mobility and daily activities.