Australian employers view their older workforce with contempt. They need to understand 70s are the new 50s
Australians, just like in wealthy societies all around the world, are living and staying healthier for longer.
You'd think this would be great news, but no.
We are told that an ageing population is an albatross around the neck of our economy and a curse on our budget.
It doesn't have to be this way but it will require smart policymaking to make the most of a willing and able older workforce.
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It will also require employers not to be such bloody dills.
This week, a survey by the Australian HR Institute and the Australian Human Rights Commission found that nearly one-quarter of employers classify over-50s as 'old'.
To see just how ridiculous this is, consider that somebody who works for 45 years and retires at age 67 will have been considered 'old' for 17 years.
That's nearly 40% of their working lives!
Like all opinions rooted in discrimination, all this defies reason.
A new article from the International Monetary Fund shows just how out of date these views are.
The IMF has looked at data across 41 countries and found that a person who was 70 years old in 2022 had the same cognitive health scores as a 53-year-old at the turn of the century.
Unsurprisingly, this spectacular improvement in mental acuity went hand-in-hand with people staying in better physical shape into their 60s, 70s and beyond.
'Better health means better labour market outcomes,' the IMF economists Bertrand Gruss and Diaa Noureldin noted.
Gruss and Noureldin show that enlightened policies – such as a focus on ongoing training and more incentives to keep people in the workforce longer – can offset three-quarters of the expected drag from ageing on the world economy over the coming decades.
'Over a decade, the cumulative improvement in cognitive capacities experienced by someone aged 50 or over is associated with an increase of about 20 percentage points in the likelihood of remaining in the labour force,' they write.
'It's also associated with an additional six hours worked per week and a 30% increase in earnings. All this could mitigate ageing's drag on growth.'
Treasury's intergenerational reports have increasingly focused the minds of Australians on the budget implications of an ageing population.
As useful as these reports have been to inform the current debate around taxation reform, they may also have fed a narrative of drooling oldies who need to be propped through their autumn years by vibrant and athletic under-50s.
If the IMF is right, that trite adage that 'demography is destiny' is, to a large degree, wrong.
As ever, our destiny is what we make of it.
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