Finding A Job Over 50....Listen Up Malcolm and Bill!

The fate of older workers in terms of discrimination, (and you only have to be aged over 55 to be considered one) should be a much bigger issue in the federal election.

Our latest FiftyUp poll finds your concerns about employment are up there with healthcare and super and you want more employer incentives and employee training.

Certainly the Labor Party has proposed a tax break worth $20,000 for employers taking on mature-aged workers, as well as under 25's and some parents.

The Coalition has existing policy called Restart which pays $10,000 for hiring older workers but employers must be  registered with the scheme and been jobless for six months.

But in an important release buried by the launch of the campaign, the Human Rights Commission Willing To Work inquiry makes some important points.

The report, which looks at discrimination against older workers and the disabled, at a time when the pension eligibility age is being pushed back found:

*While those over 55 make up about 25% of the population, and are the fastest growing cohort, they are just 16% of the workforce.

*Labour force participation declines with age: while 74% of those aged 55-59 are in work the figures are 56% for 60-64 year olds and 13% for those aged over 65.

In 2015 the commission found 27% of those aged more than 50 had faced discrimination in the workplace in a third of cases when applying for a job.

Perhaps most disturbingly one third of those who experienced such discrimination, which is a breach of law under the Fair Work Act, gave up looking for a job.

So what’s best to be done given we are living much longer and someone in their fifties may face 40 years of little or no meaningful employment?

The HRC report, read here makes a number of recommendations  aimed at government and industry which are worthy of much broader consideration.

Among them the creation of a cabinet minister for longevity charged with addressing the many issues of the ageing population including employment discrimination and workplace participation.

I’d like to see that run up the election flagpole instead of the distraction of so many far less important issues.

In the meantime while we wait for the government and industry to get their acts together what can we, the older worker do, to help ourselves?

There are many places to get help-websites which specialise in jobs for those of mature age such as olderworkers.com.au and career coaches who can help prepare you for the new world of work. Check out some of our stories on the FiftyUp Club site.

One thing we can all do is the ditch the negative stereotyping of older workers we tend to carry ourselves and is not just applied by others.

The advice comes from the august Harvard Business Review, which has just looked at this issue read here

Their argument is while older workers can be stereotyped in more positive ways, such as their loyalty and reliability compared to younger workers, the negative stereotypes are more damaging.

They include: less motivated, more resistant to change, not willing to retrain and more vulnerable to health problems.

And the Review says there’s evidence us older workers can stereotype ourselves, because of what we think other people are work may think of us, in a way which is more negative than the actual stereotypes!

In the meantime there’s a rich vein of practical policies lurking in that Willing To Work report if only the major parties would sit up and take real notice of the issue.