Queensland employers are confident in having older workers in their work force. The tendency was reflected in the results of a Monash University survey of 600 Queensland employers.

Monash University Professor Phillip Taylor claimed the survey shows 40 percent of private sector decision makers were targeting workers aged 55 and up just to cover labour shortages. Moreover, the survey shows that many employers were more interested in older workers than younger ones from overseas.

Professor Taylor said, “In the past, particularly in the 80s [and] the 90s, the economic downturns of that period, employers were looking to rid themselves of older worker... This is the first time we've found significant interest in employing older workers.”

The Older People Speak Out (OPSO) welcomes the trend. Val French, the president of the non-profit organization, said, “ In all the research that we have done, there is a great desire amongst older workers to remain in the workforce and unemployed older workers to return to the workforce.”

French added that older workers “like to think of themselves at 50 as still 40 at heart and most of the evidence shows that 40 is the old 30, that 50 is the old 40.”

The member of the Order of Australia insisted, “... people in their 60s are feeling very strongly that they need to stay in the workforce and baby boomers do have a lot of debts and it is going to be far more difficult for them to retire financially.”