Nearly two decades ago, Roger Pugh, a retiree, went back to work.
The Sydneysider had forged a long career in management at some of Australia’s top advertising agencies.
At one point, it was his job to hand out the obligatory gold watch to employees who had turned 65.
“I still remember the look on their faces,” he says. “These people, who had been loyal to our company for years, suddenly felt like it was the end of the line for them. I swore I would never be in that position of being forced to retire before I was ready.”
However, Mr Pugh eventually succumbed to the lure of retirement, leaving the workforce early at 55 and looking forward to a break.
He took a decade off and, newly refreshed, decided to re-invent himself and return to work as a writer.
“Doing nothing and vegetating into retirement was never my plan,” he says.
Finding a way to make writing pay the bills wasn’t easy, he admits. He started a blog but found it difficult to monetise.
“Initially, it cost me a lot of money to be a writer, to be honest,” he says.
In due course, he secured a role as a copywriter for a Sydney publisher. He is still active in the workforce and has no plan to stop any time soon. Roger is one of a growing number of Australians quitting retirement to return to work.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealed that 177,500 Australians aged 45 years and over who had previously retired returned to work or were planning to.
Nearly half (42 per cent) were doing so for financial reasons, while 32 per cent stated they were “bored and needed something to do”.
Rising long-term unemployment – something we don’t talk about.
Australian Council of Social Service and Jobs Australia, reveals “disturbing growth” in the share of job seekers who have been out of work for an extended period.
Before Covid-19 hit, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the 757,000 people receiving unemployment payments had been doing so for more than a year. That compares with 49 per cent in 2009 and fewer than 40 per cent during the mid-1990s.
Now almost half (46 per cent) have received unemployment payments for over two years and one in five (20 per cent) for more than five years.
Cassandra Goldie, the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, said even before the coronavirus crisis too many people were locked out of paid work and more “serious investments” in employment services were needed.
“We have a good idea from the evidence available of what works to get people unemployed long-term into jobs: paid work experience in a regular job rather than work for the dole; training in skills in demand from employers rather than standardised ‘work preparation’ courses, and one-on-one support both for those seeking employment and prospective employers,” she said.
The federal government spends $1.3 billion annually on its jobactive employment services program but the 42 organisations that administer it devote considerable resources to enforcing compliance.
“A growing share of people who are unemployed are older,” it says.
Changes to the labour market have also made it difficult for younger job seekers because entry-level jobs are either harder to get, offer too few paid hours, or are harder to keep.