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Week 6: Insights into Supporting Mature Workers
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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What is a mature worker? The Province of British Columbia defines a mature worker as someone over the age of 55 while the Province of Alberta looks at workers over the age of 45. The Government of Canada defines an older worker as someone over 55 while the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines an older worker as someone aged 50 and older.
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While age is an important factor, I think we can all agree that people achieve 'maturity' at different stages of life, if ever at all.
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Keep in mind that older workers typically have the best career opportunities of all. They are typically earning the best wages, have the best financial security and have achieved the highest levels of promotion in their entire life.
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When we look at the June 2024 Labour Force Survey, we see the lowest unemployment rate was among Canadians aged 55+; 5.1% for men and 4.8% for women. This compares with 14.7% for male youth aged 15-24 and 12.2% for female youth.
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Considering these factors, why do we even look at 'mature workers' as an underrepresented segment of the labour market. It's because a subsegment of this population struggles with employment issues such as having been laid off after a lengthy career, being new to the country with a mismatch of education and skills, attempting to craft a new career or having struggled to maintain continuous entry-level employment throughout their career. In nearly all of these cases, these workers lack relevant education and training and/or experience.
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While more Canadians are choosing to continue working, we need to recognize that retirement remains a primary goal for many workers. In June 2023, just over one-fifth (21.8%) of Canadians aged 55 to 59 years reported that they were either completely or partially retired. This proportion doubled to more than two in five (44.9%) for those aged 60 to 64 years, then nearly doubled again to four in five (80.5%) for those aged 65 to 69 years. After the age of 70 years, the proportion of people in retirement reached a plateau, with over 90% of Canadians in that age group reporting they were completely or partially retired.
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Financial pressure remains a primary driver for workers returning to the job market. Among those who reported being completely retired, over one-third (35.0%) of men and more than one-quarter (28.2%) of women cited financial reasons as the main factor in determining the timing of their retirement.
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From a job development perspective, it's valuable for us to help convey to employer the tremendous gold mine mature workers represent both in terms of new hires and their existing employees.
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Mature workers are far less likely to take a new job because it represents an advancement in title or career opportunity. Older workers are also less likely to take a competing job offer because it represents a small salary increase.
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Mature workers are often past the lifelong mileposts that often take people out of the workforce such as starting a family, changing jobs due to purchasing a home or because their partner needs to change jobs.
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There are a lot of factors for employers to consider among their existing workforce. Among people who had not completely retired but were planning to retire, more than half (55.1%) reported that they would continue working longer if they could work part-time, and about half (48.9%) reported that they would continue working if they could work fewer hours without affecting their pension.
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Others said they would continue working if it were less stressful or physically demanding (43.0%) or if they had the opportunity to do more interesting work (37.6%). A further 34.2% cited pay or salary increases as motivation to continue working, and 29.3% would continue working if their health improved.
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While there are technical challenges mature workers need to overcome such as lacking a network, having out-of-date expectations about job search, lacking skills and limited experience, we need to also recognize there is genuine prejudice to mature workers.
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Many workers are attracted to younger employees feeling they have a better attitude, will stay in the role longer or they have a more current skill set. While I believe each of these areas can be addressed by effectively marketing each client based on their own unique skills and abilities, there is the perception of prejudice which is also toxic.
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How many times have you sat across from a mature worker who says, 'no one wants to hire me', or 'employers want to hire kids to do the job'?
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When coaching mature workers, we need to tell them to defy pre-conceived notions about older workers. Mature workers should demonstrate a clear understanding of emerging technologies, enthusiasm, courtesy and a willingness to try new things when they write their cover letters, prepare their resumes, meet employers for the first time and attend interviews. If mature workers can think and act like younger workers but draw on their skills and life experience, they will be the stronger candidate.
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We’ll be discussing the employment outcomes of Indigenous Canadians at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Tuesday Aug. 6th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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We're no longer using the Motivating Mondays URL to connect due to security concerns. Instead we're hosting the sessions on a new Teams Link we share in this newsletter each week. On the morning of Tuesday August 6th, 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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