More older Australians are staying in work for longer, creating a new ‘peak’ retirement age, according to a new KPMG report.
Analysis by KPMG Urban Economist, Terry Rawnsley, suggests that Australian workers are retiring at their oldest age since the 1970s. This higher expected retirement age has remained unchanged over the past two years, which suggests a major shift since the Covid pandemic.
The expected retirement age for men is now 66.2 (highest since 1972).
The expected retirement age for women is now 64.8 (highest since 1971).
Drivers for these changes are increased flexibility in what Rawnsley calls ‘knowledge intensive’ roles, also the increase in working from home which has allowed many older Australians to ‘semi-retire’ or work from home or a holiday location.
Whilst it seems that older workers ‘filled gaps’ during the Covid years, the labour market has since tightened with the return of international migration and growth in the under-55 labour force.
More women are also working full-time with the expected age of retirement from full-time work increasing by 12 months. Somewhat conversely, the later age of retirement for men is seen to have been encouraged by increases in part-time retirement. Rawnsley noted, however, that:
“Even in a tight labour market, we may have reached a plateau in the expected age of retirement, suggesting we cannot expect older workers to continue working longer. This is because we simply can’t find enough older workers to sustain the growth that occurred during the COVID-19 era.”
