Mature Age Unemployment: A Long-Term Cost to Society

Abstract

The issue of mature-age unemployment has now received comprehensive scrutiny by a parliamentary committee, which confirms in detail that mature-age workers (45 plus) are disproportionately represented among the long-term and very-long-term unemployed. So far, the Commonwealth Government has taken no action to deal specifically with these age groups, but programs now exist in three states, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia. The principal difficulty experienced by older workers is the attitude of employers, who consistently give preference to younger people. Although there is growing awareness of the problem, the situation is unlikely to change significantly until the demographic pressure of an ageing workforce becomes inescapable.

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