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Workforce participation of mature-age adults in Australia

This research focused on pathways and outcomes for mature-age people whose non-participation or under-participation in paid work is not their own choice.

Understanding and Preventing Workforce Vulnerabilities in Midlife and Beyond  was a three-year project funded through an Australian Research Council grant.

The findings aimed to inform policy and practice to better target interventions and support for mature-age workers. Research partners were the University of Canberra, University of Melbourne, Curtin University, Jobs Australia and the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

Contact Dina Bowman

Reports

Michael McGann, Dina Bowman, Helen Kimberley and Simon Biggs 2015, Too old to work, too young to retire, research summary (PDF, 787 KB)

    Honge (Cathy) Gong and Justine McNamara 2011, Workforce participation and non-participation among baby boomers in Australia: a profile from HILDA data , full report (PDF, 340 KB) published by NATSEM

    Dina Bowman and Helen Kimberley 2011, Sidelined! Workforce participation and non-participation among baby boomers in Australia (PDF, 361 KB) Summary (PDF, 131 KB)

    Nicole Berrell 2011, Workforce participation and non-participation among baby boomers in Australia: a life-course outline and literature review (PDF, 302 KB) research support document

    Helen Kimberley and Dina Bowman 2011, 'Understanding mature-age workforce participation in Australia', in Tabatha Griffin and Francesca Beddie (eds) Older workers: research readings, NCVER, Adelaide.


    Infographics

    Michael McGann 2015, Ageism and employment (PDF, 84 KB)

    Michael McGann 2015, Mature age jobseekers (PDF, 85 KB)


      Working paper

      Michael McGann, Rachel Ong, Dina Bowman, Alan Duncan, Helen Kimberley and Simon Biggs, A gendered analysis of age discrimination among older jobseekers in Australia , Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper 16/01, Curtin University, Perth

      Earlier work on mature-age workforce participation included a quantitative analysis of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) survey, undertaken by NATSEM, University of Canberra, and a qualitative study undertaken by the Brotherhood's Research and Policy Centre.

        Policy submissions

        Response to Grey areas: age barriers to work in Commonwealth laws discussion paper November 2012 (PDF, 140 KB)

        Response to Grey areas: age barriers to work in Commonwealth laws (Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry) August 2012 (PDF, 219 KB)

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