12 March 2020	MEDIA RELEASE
	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)

Nearly a fifth of Australians aged 65 and over and working in 2006 were working ten years later, according to new analysis released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This reflects a doubling of the proportion of employed people who were older (65 years and over), between 2006 and 2016, from 2 per cent to 4 per cent of all employed people.

Data from the ABS’ Australian Longitudinal Census Dataset (ACLD) shows that almost three quarters of this group of older people who continued to work were male with around two thirds reducing the number of hours worked over the ten year period.

The analysis also found that older people continuing in the workforce were more likely to live in regional Australia, compared with other people their age, and more than a quarter of continuing older workers worked in the agricultural industry.

In comparison, the proportion of people under the age of 65 working in the agriculture industry over the same period of time was less than 3 per cent of the total workforce.

ABS Program Manager of Data Integration Operations, Michael Beahan, said:

“The ACLD allows us to develop unique insights from three Censuses going back to 2006.

“By exploring this longitudinal Census data, we can better understand the characteristics and transitions for people approaching retirement age, exploring changes in employment, living arrangements and geographic location.”

Over the next few weeks the ABS will publish further analysis using longitudinal data exploring topics including Australians who developed a profound or severe disability, and Australians moving from renting to home ownership.

Data users can create their own customised tables using the ACLD TableBuilder. Approved researchers can access detailed microdata in the ABS DataLab.


Media note:

• The ABS is committed to keeping people's personal information safe, secret and secure and this data set does not enable any identification of individuals.
• For the purposes of this analysis, older people refers to the group who were aged 65 years and over on Census night 2006.
• People who continued to work refers to those who were employed on each Census night in 2006, 2011 and 2016. A range of changes in labour force status and other characteristics may have occurred between these points.
• Regional Australia comprises Inner Regional Australia and Outer Regional Australia as defined in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Remoteness Structure.
• The Agricultural industry refers to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry as defined in Division A – Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0)
• The full article can be found in Australians' journeys through life: Stories from the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (cat. no. 2081.0).
• Information about ACLD Table products can be found in Microdata: Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (cat. not. 2080.0).
• Further information about data integration and the Census is available on the ABS Data Integration webpage and the Census Privacy, Confidentiality & Security webpage
• When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
• For media requests or interviews, contact the ABS Media team on 1300 175 070.