Coronavirus: Pandemic hits older workers hardest

Australians aged over 65 years have suffered a greater fall in their working hours than any other age group through the pandemic, and they need more support.

There’s a need for additional government support for older workers, who have suffered a relatively large hit to hours worked through the pandemic. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Older working Australians have been hardest hit by the pandemic, suffering a greater fall in working hours than any other age group, according to a new ANU research paper that also finds the average employed Australian has lost $5900 in earnings as a result of the recession.

The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods tracked the impact of the recession on hours worked between early February and the end of October, finding those who entered the pandemic with a job had lost an average 167 hours of work since early February — the equivalent to a total loss of $5885 in earnings.

Including those who were unemployed when the pandemic hit, the average net loss of hours worked was 67 hours, equating to a total loss of productive earnings of $2380 per adult.

Assuming all Australian adults worked 67 fewer hours on average during the pandemic, the paper calculated there would have been a total of 1.3 billion working hours lost at a total cost to the economy of $47bn.

ANU professors Nicholas ­Biddle and Matthew Gray also modelled the impact of variables such as gender, location, educational attainment and age against a “typical” male worker they estimate lost 145 hours of ­labour through the pandemic.

Against this benchmark, workers aged over 65 lost an ­additional 140 hours. This compared with 18-24-year-olds, who actually lost 29 fewer hours than the modelled typical worker.

The study also found that men had suffered a greater hit to their hours worked than women, and that those who had finished Year 12 but not done a higher degree had been more badly affected than those without a higher school education or those with degrees.

The Morrison government has aimed its JobMaker Hiring Credit scheme — which is being debated in the Senate — at the provision of wage subsidies for under 35s, but Professor Biddle said the research pointed to the need for additional support for those over 65.

“We know from previous ­recessions that once those older Australians have left the workforce they find it hard to re-enter,” he said. Some of those who couldn’t find gainful employment again after the downturn would be forced onto government benefits, lifting the country’s welfare burden.

 

Rate cuts this year have had a particularly devastating impact on those who rely on cash savings for income, suggesting some older workers will have suffered hits to labour and non-labour income. Those looking to retire will face a depressed sharemarket.

“Younger Australians have been impacted in different ways,” Professor Biddle said. The survey found, for example, that they continued to be more anxious and worried than other groups.

But he pointed towards a greater likelihood of older jobseekers facing age discrimination when employers were experiencing a higher than usual number of applicants for roles.

“I do think there’s a potential long-term impact for older Australians which may not have been responded to adequately (by the government),” he said.

The study also showed there was a surprisingly large divergence between the number of lost hours worked in Melbourne compared with the rest of Victoria.

The researchers found that employed Melburnians lost 72 more hours of work than those in the rest of Australia, while Victorians outside the capital had surprisingly lost 117 fewer hours versus the rest of the country.