Barriers to mature age employment: final report of the consultative forum on mature age participation

Increasing mature age labour force participation is a key strategy open to policy makers to address the economic implications of Australia’s ageing population. Encouragingly, Australia’s level of mature age employment compared to other OECD countries has improved considerably in the past decade. However there remains room for continued improvement, to enable the economy to fully benefit from the skills and experience offered by mature age workers. Improving mature age labour force participation is one of the key challenges identified for our economy in Australia to 2050: Future Challenges, the 2010 Intergenerational Report.

In this context, in February 2010, the Australian Government established the Consultative Forum on Mature Age Participation as a vehicle to provide evidence-based advice on ways to overcome the barriers to employment participation confronting many mature age people. One key outcome of the Forum’s work has been the identification and measurement of 14 key barriers faced by mature age Australians in the workplace or looking for a job, and the development of recommendations to overcome these barriers—all of which are included in this report.