Fed: NSW, Vic workers most likely to opt out early

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2004
Fed: NSW, Vic workers most likely to opt out early

MELBOURNE, Feb 10 AAP - White-collar workers in Australia's most populous states are
most likely to experience burn-out and opt out of the workforce earlier, a workplace survey
has found.

The survey of 7,500 companies found NSW and Victorian employees were the least likely
to be interested in working past retirement age.

Of all NSW managers surveyed, 63.5 per cent were interested in working beyond retirement
age, compared to 69.7 per cent of Victorian managers, 72 per cent in Queensland, 78 per
cent in South Australia, 82.4 per cent in West Australia and 85.2 per cent of managers
in the ACT.

Melanie Kontze, Victorian general manager of The Hudson Report, the company which carried
out the survey, said the results may be indicative of a greater burn-out factor in larger
states and a greater ability of people in the smaller cities to find a happy balance between
life and work.

"Therefore the idea of remaining in some form of employment is much more appealing,"

Ms Kontze said.

The survey also found that fewer than one in three Australian employers were trying
to attract mature-age workers.

Federal Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said Australia was
yet to seriously confront the trend of early retirement and the need to keep more mature-age
workers in the workforce.

He said companies which failed to employ mature-age Australians would not survive.

"We need an attitudinal sea change towards older workers and recruitment agencies and
human resource managers are on the frontline," Mr Andrews said.

Tasmanian managers were also surveyed, but the sample group was too small to give accurate
percentile figures.

AAP clm/gfr/jv/jlw/

KEYWORD: WORKERS

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