Post on 09-Sep-2018
‘Tick & flick’?
Mature age jobseekers
and employment services
Dina Bowman, Brotherhood of St Laurence; Michael McGann, University of Melbourne,
Helen Kimberley, Brotherhood of St Laurence; Simon Biggs, University of Melbourne;
Overview
• Background and policy context
• The study
• Some initial findings
• Some implications and next steps
Baby boomer bulge
http://theconversation.com/take-it-easy-fellas-old-age-spread-could-make-you-healthier-631
‘Consider the expectation that a 72-year-
old man should be as strong or as fast as a
30-year-old man. It is unrealistic but policy
makers, health professionals and the
population at large seem to expect that the
body composition of a 72-year-old man
should be the same as that of a 30-year-
old man.’ Professor Almeida, Uni WA
The other baby boomer bulge
Patterns of employment across the life-course
Across the OECD, participation in employment declines sharply from mid-life
Source: Compiled from OECD Stats Library (2013)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70+
%
Age group
Employment/Population, 2011
Men (OECD)
Men (Australia)
Women (OECD)
Women (Australia)
Working longer?
Policy concerns
Intergenerational report 2015 p.58
65
(2015)
66
(2019)
67 (2023)
68 (2027)
69 (2031)
70 (2035)
Increase in pension eligibility age
Working longer?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-23/susan-ryan/6414650
Mature age participation rate
ABS Original data
Mature age unemployment
No. Long-term Newstart Allowance recipients, characteristics by sex, June 2010-2013 DSS 2014,13,12,11
Long term Mature-age NA recipients
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
90,000
100,000
2010 2011 2012 2013
45-49 persons
50-59 persons
≥60 persons
• 248,000 mature age Australians on Newstart (Mar 2015) - up 93,000 since June 2008 (Dept of
Employment, LMIP data)
• 65% of MA jobseekers registered with Centrelink in March 2015 registered for over a year
• 46% registered with Centrelink for 2+ years Source: Dept of Employment, Mature age population by duration of
registration March 2015
Policy responses
Employers
Older Workers
Labour market
intermediaries
• Wage subsidies (Restart)
• Age management toolkits
(NSA kit, Investing in
Experience)
• Age positive campaign
• Higher pension and
superannuation preservation
ages
• Tax incentives (Work Bonus)
• Re-skilling and retraining
Supp
ly s
ide
Dem
and s
ide
Most research in relation to LMIs and mature age jobseekers has focused on recruitment agencies
• ‘recruitment agencies often perform a gate-keeping function that can exclude mature age workers’
(ALRC 2013: 4.4)
• use of employment agencies has resulted in recruiters becoming younger → potential for age
incongruence and discrimination (Patrickson & Ranzijn 2003)
• ‘requirement to gain regular or repeat business may enable discriminatory employers to more easily
condition agencies into accepting covert age discrimination as a business norm’ (Handy & Davy
2007)
Job Services Australia 2009-2015
• Quasi-market design continued reflecting ‘consensus
that welfare-to-work is best delivered by private agencies
operating under short-term government contracts’
(Considine et al. 2014)
• greater use of accredited training, focus on
achieving outcomes for more highly disadvantaged
jobseekers, and emphasise delivering longer-term
employment outcomes (+6 months) (Fowkes 2011)
• 4 streams depending on assessed barriers
• ‘Softening’ of compliance framework, although ‘workfare
paternalism’ (Mestan 2014)
Employment services research
1. Marketisation
2. Employment services and income
support – mutual obligation
3. Contractual compliance
4. Routinisation
5. De-professionalisation
Routinisation
Strongly agree or agree that: 1998
(%) 2008 (%) 2012 (%)
‘Our computer system tells me what steps to take with jobseekers and when to take them.’ 17.4 47.4 50.4
‘When it comes to day-to-day work I am free to decide for myself what I will do with each
jobseeker’ 84.6 62.5 60.2
Source: Considine, Lewis & O’Sullivan (2011); Considine et al. (2013)
When I came back into the industry
[after a 12 month break], every
single consultant had a computer
on their desk and they dealt with
the computer, and the person on
the other side was just an
instrument to complete the
compliance. (quoted in Considine et al. 2011) 2011)
De-professionalisation of frontline workers
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Staff under 35yrs Female staff Vocational Certificate
Diploma Degree
Changing profile of frontline workers
1998
2008
2012
Sourc
e: extr
acte
d f
rom
Consid
ine
& L
ew
is (
2010);
Consid
ine e
t al. (
2013);
Lew
is (
2013)
• ‘The use of client classification tools, or other structured assessment instruments ...
replaces part of the skill set that a case manager might otherwise need’ (Considine et
al. 2011: 821)
• ‘In the absence of a critical framework, low qualified workers are more likely to simply
follow the standard department guidelines rather than use their discretion or introduce
new responses in service delivery’ (Giuliani 2013)
Research on MA jobseekers & job services
• Older jobseekers especially liable to being ‘parked’ on
the basis that providers may see them as less
employable and harder-to-place than younger
jobseekers (Kerr et al. 2002)
• MA jobseekers perceived services as offering little real
assistance to mature age jobseekers ‘predicated on a
set negative assumptions about [their] life experience,
job histories and training’ (Kossen & Hammer 2010)
• Mature age jobseekers ‘confronted by young,
inexperienced staff who are unable to empathise with
the problems encountered by older people (Encel & Studencki 2004)
• Injustice of a system that focuses excessively on what
mature age jobseekers owe and ignores their
substantial work histories and contributions (Anaf et al. 2014;
Kossen & Hammer 2010)
Study of lived experiences of 80 older
men and women who:
• haven’t been able to find a job or
• are under-employed
Statistical study of :
• factors shaping mature age un – and
under-employment
• Impacts on financial and personal
wellbeing
About the study
Key research questions
• What are the factors shaping under-employment and unemployment among older
Australians? How do these differ between men and women of different ages?
• How does reduced labour force participation affect older men and women’s wellbeing
and expectations about growing older?
• How can existing employment services and programs better assist mature age
jobseekers?
Understanding and preventing workforce vulnerabilities in midlife and beyond is supported by
the Australian Research Council, Brotherhood of St Laurence and Jobs Australia.
Selected characteristics of those using
employment services
Newstart
(n=22)
DSP
(n=8)
Voluntary
(n=3)
Total
(n=33)
Male 8 2 3 13
Female 14 6 20
45-54 13 6 19
55-64 9 2 3 14
Year 12 or equivalent 1 1
Vocational certificate 4 3 1 8
Diploma or advanced diploma 6 1 1 8
Degree or higher 11 4 1 15
Clerical and administrative 7 3 10
Community and personal service 2 2 4
Machinery operators and labourers 2 2
Technicians and trades 3 1 2 6
Professionals and managers 8 2 1 11
Married or partnered 8 1 3 12
Separated, divorced, or widowed 4 4 8
Single, never married 10 3 13
The mature age job seekers we
interviewed spoke of:
• Compulsion and a sense of ‘going
through the motions
• A white collar support gap
• Age mismatch / lack of intergenerational
awareness
3 key findings in relation to job services
‘Carelessness’, compulsion and going through the motions
It’s just something you go through to be seen to be doing things, so you can get a
Newstart benefit ...
I’m meant to approach 12 jobs per week. Which is a lot ... you end up making up a
report to tick the boxes, because the expectations of actually doing it is totally
unreasonable ... As long as you [are] actually marching to the beat of the drum, tick all
the boxes that are required ... they don’t really care, they kick you off and give you
another appointment three weeks later. And the cycle continues
(Ed, 54, advertising professional)
Well they [Centrelink] force me to. I have an interview this afternoon.
(Nicole, 56, Newstart, personal service worker)
Yeah I have [been using JSA] because you have to ... I found the new one that I
belong to they’re absolutely wonderful and respectful. But the rest of them ... they’ve
been very disrespectful and they don’t think that you’ve got any rights ...
(Kate, 54, Newstart, social worker)
‘Compliance is too often confused with engagement’ (Giuliani 2013: 8)
Performative technologies, involving auditing and
evaluating, have directed attention to the
measureable, no matter how inappropriate this may
be...Incessant auditing and measuring is a recipe for
self-display and the fabrication of image over
substance....
Working under constant surveillance also breeds a
culture of compliance: there is little incentive to
innovate or to challenge prevailing orthodoxies
necessary though that may be’
(K. Lynch, ‘Carelessness: A hidden doxa of higher education’)
I had to go and see her once every 6 weeks or something like that, it
was a tick-and-flick ... Walk in there, tick the boxes in the paper
and flick me ... there is no heart and soul in it (Ian, 63, HR,
Newstart)
Sometimes I think the things they do have nothing to do with helping
me, but just to make them look like they’re doing something, and
they’re not really doing something (Miriam, 55, Newstart, local govt)
They will see you for less than 2 minutes, they just want you to sign
that you have been there ... (Claire, 54, Newstart, receptionist)
You go there and they ask you, “Uh what’s happening?” I mean what
a waste ... I said, “Here I am, I am 60 years old, I’ve got problems
with my fingers ... And from you, you keep asking me things; not what
can you do for me?” And that’s the only time they look at my file ...
and told me “you need to be assessed”. I was only assessed only 2
weeks ago, and that’s why I am in Stream 3 (Veronica, Newstart,
bookkeeper)
‘Tick-and-flick’
White collar support gap
basically they’d say to me, we’ve got blue collar jobs here. We have [tonnes] of dishwashers and supermarket packers,
we don’t have anything for you. (Sharon 50, officer administrator, Newstart)
they probably cater more to the younger crowd and em, the ones that have just left school. And they know where they
can get jobs, those jobs are pretty plentiful—like retail and hospitality, or those kinds of things. And that’s the easiest path
to take, whereas for us people who may have special needs that we kind of get put on a side rail. (Jim 55, IT, Newstart)
I ended up half sort of taking [the workshop] myself . They just focused on ... some basic principles of maintaining your
self-esteem; ensuring that, you know, your personal presentation was up to scratch; completing the research to ensure
that when you did apply for a job you were not walking in blind ... Most of those ideas came from myself. Well the lady that
was facilitating the workshop, by her own admission, specialised in finding employment for people with a disability (63,
Newstart, HR)
the classes were not helpful to me. I've already got a good CV. I've gotten three jobs this year, they just weren't as full-time
or as permanent as I'd like ... Some of the other folks there just want me to plug into something no matter how
inappropriate it is. That was the other job, she wanted to start me out as an entry-level receptionist. She said, “You worked
your way up once, you can do it again.” (Miriam, 55, Newstart, local government project officer)
It has just been a matter of, you know, they send me off to a TAFE for a couple of days, I get the Certificate in Food
Handling, or whatever it might be, and this does not lead to any jobs because half the population seems to have this
certificate in Food Handling or whatever it might be ... (Kevin, DSP, 53, transcriber/copy editor)
Job search and vocational training seen as offering little
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Managers
Professionals
Technicians and Trades Workers
Community and Personal Services Workers
Clerical and Administrative Workers
Sales Workers
Machinery Operators and Drivers
Labourers
HILDA: Newstart recipients’ occupation by age
MA on Newstart (45+yrs) Prime age jobseekers (25-44 yrs) Youth on Newstart (15-24)
Source: HILDA 2013 data courtesy of Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Manufacturing
Construction
Retail trade
Accommodation and food services
Transport, postal and warehousing
Administrative and support services
Public administration and safety
Education and training
Health care and social assistance
Other services
HILDA: Newstart recipients’ industry by age
MA on Newstart (45+yrs) Prime age jobseekers (25-44 yrs) Youth on Newstart (15-24)
Source: HILDA 2013 data courtesy of Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre
Age gap - unconscious bias, lack of intergenerational awareness
I could see all those consultants, they look so young ... They look at you like they’re
going to be kind of hesitant to tell you something, or whatever... I would imagine that at
least 80 per cent of their ages are between 25 to 35 at the most, or even younger
(Veronica, Newstart, bookkeeper, 60)
I have found it very, very difficult to convey to them my sheer need for work ... [Name of
current provider] excelled by the fact that the staff members that I’ve dealt with were
approximately my own age.
With a lot of these agencies, you know, I’m talking about people who are 20 years of 30
years younger than me. And I just can’t get through to them what it’s like, especially
when you’re in your 50s, because I mean, they’re so young for the most part, they think
they’ve got it all ... (Kevin, DSP, transcriber/copy editor)
Quite often I found myself dealing with mid-20-year old, predominantly
female, fast-tracked HR graduates, who had little or no life skills and
work experience skills. They just regurgitated what they got taught at the
university and/or the company’s policies and procedures with little
understanding about [the] human condition (Neil, 55, mechanic)
He [consultant who filled in] was older than I was ... And we talked about
more of the issues that I experienced rather than how many boxes I had to
tick. And that’s the thing that a 24-year-old, in their first job out of the uni – I
mean, what’s she going to tell me? And it’s quite insulting ... And she treats
me with a degree of “I’m talking to my father” as well ...
The last appointment I had, the thing that stuck me, she went ... “Do you
know at 55 ... you can go and get some volunteer work 15 hours a week,
and then you don’t have to do any of this. Might that be great?” And I said “I
need to work ... I can’t survive like this.” And she just looked at me and goes
“You should be happy.” It was just nonsense. And that’s the naiveté as I
looked at this young girl’s eyes.
(Ed, Newstart, advertising professional)
Systematic misrecognition of their substantive experience?
Some conclusions
Employment services – and other labour market intermediaries play an
important role in assisting mature age jobseekers
Underlying assumption of system design—that jobseekers are low-skilled and
seeking entry-level pathways—out of sync with circumstances of increasingly
numerous older jobseekers
• Job-matching and employer-engagement strategies need to move beyond
manual and elementary service occupations if system is to adapt to
demographic ageing
• Building intergenerational awareness between jobseekers and
employment service providers is important
• Current training packages—e, Cert III and IV in Employment Services—include
modules on understanding jobseekers with disability, mental health issues, and
from CALD backgrounds, but not older workers
The experience of mature age jobseekers
using employment services is just one
aspect of this study. We’re also reporting
on our findings in relation to:
• Gendered age discrimination
• Job design
• Age friendly workplaces
• Job pathways
• Impacts on financial and personal
wellbeing
Next steps
For more information
www.workinglonger.wordpress.com
Image and other references on request
Michael McGann mmgann@unimelb.edu.au or
Dina Bowman dbowman@bsl.org.au