OLDER UNEMPLOYED workers are dropping out of job searching because they are being told they are too old, according to the Australian Democrats
OLDER UNEMPLOYED workers are dropping out of job searching because they are being told they are too old, according to the Australian Democrats.
Despite employment growth, many older workers had given up looking for work and the Job Network is not doing enough to help them, according to Democrats employment spokesperson Senator John Cherry.
“Many Job Network providers now assume that the unemployed will do their job search on the internet, despite the fact that many older unemployed do not have these skills,” Senator Cherry said.
“It is not surprising then, to find that recent employment data found that the only category of ‘discouraged jobseekers’ that rose in 2003, was that of the 60-plus workers, with drops in all other age groups.”
The number of workers aged 60 and older who wanted to work, but had given up looking for work, rose 40 per cent in 2003, from 17,900 to 25,300.
Sixty-one per cent of older workers cited “considered too old by employers” as the reason for giving up looking for work, while 9 per cent cited lack of skills or training and 25.5 per cent cited a lack of jobs.
“The problem of discouraged workers is clearly enormous in the mature-aged categories, when you consider that there were 39,000 workers older than 55 officially unemployed, but a further 33,000 not regarded as ‘unemployed’ because they had given up looking for work,” he said.
“There were 114,900 mature-aged workers who wanted to work, but who fell outside the official definition of unemployment. Adding in these workers raises the unemployment rate for mature-aged workers from the ‘official’ level of 3.2 per cent to a more dramatic 11.5 per cent, which is a shameful, wasteful use of the skills and experience of mature-aged employers.
“The Howard Government needs to acknowledge that mature-aged workers face serious age discrimination problems in the workforce. The Independent Review of the Job Network in 2002 found the system was letting mature-aged workers down, and clearly little has improved since then,” he said.
A concerted effort is needed to re-educate employers about the reliability and productivity of mature-aged workers to break down prejudices against employing older workers, he said.
He also pointed out that recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also revealed that official unemployment rate rises from 5.8 per cent to 15.9 per cent when a wider definition of unemployment (i.e. available for work within four weeks rather than immediately) is used.
However Minister for Employment Services Mal Brough played down the Democrat’s accusations, with the launch of a national mature-age month.
“There are about 70,000 mature-age people on unemployment benefits. These are people who want a job, but have so far been unsuccessful and many feel they are discriminated against. There are also those not on benefits who would also jump at the chance of a reasonable job,” Minister Brough said.
“I have asked Job Network to try to achieve 7,000 mature-age job placements as a result of our mature-age month activities. It might be full-time, part-time or casual work, but it is important to use all stepping-stones to break the unemployment cycle and to increase mature-age workforce participation.”
He said that the month provided the opportunity to sell the business case for employers to take on more mature-age workers.
“This is not about corporate welfare, it just makes good business sense to increase the proportion of mature-age workers in your workplace. They are more likely to stay longer in their jobs than young people, they are less likely to be absent from work and they can be a stabilising influence at work,” he said.
