Why Babyboomers Are Still Working…

Maybe we need to re-think our working statistics. Deirdre Macken’s article in The Financial Review examines how our workforce is changing:

• In the last three years almost 100,000 extra older workers have entered the workforce each year.
  
• Ten years ago only a third of people aged 60-64 were employed, now more than half of the population
  in that age category are working.
  
• Three years ago one in seven workers were over the age of 55, the current rate is now one in six.
  
• 40 percent of all new workers in the last three years are 55 or older.
  
• The number of employees aged 65 jumped by 30% compared with the population increase of 8.5%.
  
• The biggest increase in employees across Australia is in women over the age of 65.
  
• Since June 2007 the only age groups that actively increased their participation in the workforce were those
  over the age of 55!

The world has changed quite substantially compared to 20 years ago and it would seem that our society is again challenging the status quo.

In today’s society, work meets our cultural and social needs, as well as financial. So why is it that the Babyboomers are still working? Could it be because they can no longer afford to retire, or maybe because retirement is just plain boring?

From the stats above we can see that there is a growing resource of employees with a wealth of knowledge, who are ready and available and will put their hand to anything. Perhaps it’s time to focus on the more social and meaningful aspects in our workplace and re-invent the definition of our “career life”.