Another long-term trend and ongoing shift in the Australian labour market has been the increase in the share of older workers. The proportion of total employment accounted for by mature age persons (55 years and over) has increased significantly, from 10.5% in February 1980 to 19.4% in February 2020. This equates to a rise in mature age employment of 1,862,700, or an annual average growth rate of 3.4% over four decades to February 2020. The increase in mature age employment, however, must be viewed in the context of the ageing population, with workers ‘taking their jobs with them’ as they move into the older age cohort.

The participation rate for persons aged 55 years and over has also risen considerably over this period, from 24.8% in February 1980 to 36.7% in February 2020. Although the majority of this increase has been for persons aged 55 to 64 years, the participation rate for persons aged 65 years and over has also risen over the period, from 6.3% in February 1980, to 14.4% in February 2020, which has coincided with an increase in the average retirement age – see Figure 13. In addition, the rise in the Age Pension eligibility age, which has been slowly increasing (from 65 years, to 67 years on 1 July 2023), could continue to put upward pressure on the participation rate of persons aged 65 years and over.

Sources: ABS, Labour force, Australia, seasonally adjusted and ABS, Labour force, Australia, detailed, three-month averages of original estimates

Other reasons for rising mature age participation include the increase in life expectancy and improved health outcomes, a rise in flexible working arrangements (with mature age people working part-time as they transition to retirement) and an increase in less physically demanding work (due to new technologies).

The mature age unemployment rate has also tended to move with the business cycle over the past four decades, although mature age persons have traditionally recorded a lower unemployment rate than their prime age counterparts. The mature age unemployment rate reached a peak of 10.6% in December 1993 after the 1990s recession, and was on a downward trajectory until it reached a trough of 2.0% in August 2008, prior to the GFC. After that, the mature age unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in February 2020.

Despite recording a lower unemployment rate than other age cohorts, older people continue to have far greater difficulty finding subsequent employment upon becoming unemployed, compared with their younger counterparts. In February 2020, mature age persons had an average duration of unemployment of 76 weeks, compared with 33 weeks for youth and 54 weeks for persons aged 25 to 54 years – see Figure 14.