Which of Australia’s baby boomers expect to delay their retirement? An occupational overview
Natalie Jackson and Maggie Walter
School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania
Contact Email:   Natalie.Jacksonutas.edu.au

A handful of studies on the retirement intentions of Australia’s Baby Boomers have each come to a similar conclusion: most Boomers are open to the idea of later retirement, with many expecting to work well into their sixties. This is good news for the Australian Government, which was concerned that Boomers would follow their immediate predecessors and retire early. However, intentions to delay retirement are by no means evenly distributed through the population by occupation. Nor are discussions pertaining to retirement occurring at the required level or evenly across occupations. By contrast with the few Australian studies which have examined similar issues for individual occupations or industries, this paper provides a comparative overview of findings for all 35 occupations at the ANZCO 2-digit level. Among these findings are that Professionals and Associate Professionals - many of whom hold so-called ‘critical skills’ which are central to the functioning of many businesses, organisations and departments - have the youngest expected retirement ages, while Labourers and Production/Transport Workers have the oldest. The findings indicate that an early retirement crisis of critically-skilled workers may yet remain.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper345.pdf

Copyright © 2009 Social Policy Research Centre.