Don’t stop working – ever?

Why retire, when you can work part-time? This is the burning question on older workers’ lips. Now seen as a growing trend in Australia, more people are gradually winding down to retirement instead of stopping work completely, with new data showing about 40% of older workers expect to wind back their hours.

Posted March 27th 2012

by DPS

Why retire, when you can work part-time? This is the burning question on older workers’ lips.

Now seen as a growing trend in Australia, more people are gradually winding down to retirement instead of stopping work completely.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 40% of older workers expect to wind back their hours for several years before eventually retiring, while another 13% intend to never retire but just keep working – at least part time.

As part of the Multipurpose Household Survey conducted last year, workers aged over 45 years were asked what their intentions were for retirement.

Although the most popular intended future retirement age was between 65 and 70 years, in reality the current average retirement age is reportedly a lot younger.

The Institute of Actuaries of Australia says the average retirement age for long-term workers is 58 for women and 61 years for men, with the age expected to increase.

“A lot of companies are offering that flexibility of part time or transition to retirement, so they can retain the Baby Boomers and their skills in the workforce,” the institute’s chief executive, Melinda Howes, tells News Limited.

“Many companies don’t want to lose those experienced people or their skills,” she adds.

The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) says the two main reasons people are choosing to work well in to their 60s are financial and social.

“For some, this is because they haven’t saved enough super or were hit hard by the global financial crisis,” AIST chief executive, Fiona Reynolds, says.

“Many know they will be heavily reliant on the age pension and see part-time work as a way to top up their income – it can be the difference between just getting by and enjoying retirement.

“But many older workers also tell us they enjoy both the challenges and social aspects of work.”

However, the survey did reveal those who have physically demanding jobs may not be able to keep working as long as they want.

For this reason, Australian Super general manager of strategy, Paul Schroder, says not everyone will have the option of working longer.

“However, for many others this notion of ‘retirement’ no longer exists. People are working part time, changing careers, learning new skills and all kinds of transitions. People are morphing in to retirement these days, there’s no big race to the finish line,” he says.

Below is an indicator of when people aged 45 years and over intend on retiring as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics: