Older, wiser... but out of work
The single-and-over-45 population is more likely to suffer income poverty than any group except single parents, and the situation is worse if you’re female, Ma¯ori or Pasifika. As Kiwis are less and less financially prepared for retirement there is an older generation desperate to work – but nobody will hire them. Kelly Dennett and Josephine Franks report.
Back in the 1980s, Caroline Nola was smashing the concrete ceiling in the construction industry. She drove cranes – one of the first female crane operators in New Zealand – trained as a welder, and steered a horizontal driller.
She was 25, bullet-proof, and never had a problem finding work.
‘‘They said women could do anything and I was out to prove to everybody that I could,’’ she says.
Three decades years later, the 57-year-old is fighting a different battle – to prove her age isn’t a handicap. After leaving a retail job in 2018, she has applied for numerous jobs that she believes she can do; she’s missed out on all of them.
Her previous retail experience included five years at a major fashion chain, two years at a supermarket, and before that, five years at The Warehouse.
Every rejection is a body blow, she says.
‘‘You feel like s... actually. You feel like the interview went really well; you get a really good vibe off the person doing the interview, then they ring you or send you an email saying you weren’t successful. You try not to have too much hope, otherwise you just crash to the ground again.’’
Caroline Nola is one of dozens the Sunday StarTimes spoke to this week, after we sought stories from older people struggling to find work. While research shows older women are more likely to be out of work as they age, the Star-Times heard from many men.
The stories were similar: an unexpected redundancy meant they were suddenly out of the workforce, and despite sending dozens of applications – in one case more than 100 – for jobs they were qualified, skilled, or in some instances overqualified for, they remained without work. They included former IT workers, administrators, care workers and business owners, some whose successful careers had spanned decades. Many had transferable skills, some sending examples of their CVs. Their frustration was palpable and many didn’t want to be identified for fear of jeopardising their situation even further; others were embarrassed.
One Wellington man landed just three interviews after applying for 187 jobs since moving back to New Zealand from Australia, going from a
$120,000 salary to unpaid contract work. The 62-year-old faced working well past superannuation age. A 52-year-old Christchurch woman who has been job-hunting since October described spending ‘‘sleepless nights in tears’’.
‘‘I have no hopes for my future, I’m afraid that I may end up on the streets.’’
Their stories took on particular significance this week as acting Retirement Commissioner Peter Cordtz did an about-turn on previous recommendations by the commission to increase the retirement age from 65.
Instead, a growing generation of people not prepared for retirement due to low home ownership rates prompted his advice to keep the super age as-is; to raise the age would worsen the situation for the struggling pre-retirement population, he warned.
Home ownership is one piece of the puzzle. Ownership rates have fallen in every age group, except those aged 80 and over in recent years. In the 50-54 age bracket ownership fell from 78 per cent in 2001, to 68 per cent in 2013. Figures from the 2018 census will be available this year. Rising debt, the changing nature of work, and difficulty obtaining work are contributing to poverty in older workers.
Eighty per cent of retirees rely on their superannuation for income and going months without work can significantly alter a financial trajectory both through a lack of KiwiSaver contributions, spending savings, and the risk of going into debt: a perfect storm for the 15 per cent of retirees who the commission said have experienced significant material hardship shaped by employment, income, costs of living, illness, injury and financial shocks. Risk factors included being single, not owning a home, being female, Ma¯ ori or Pacifica, having experienced redundancy or unexpectedly being unable to work.
While New Zealand ostensibly has a healthy population of older workers – nearly 72 per cent of 60-65 year-olds work at least one hour a week – many are parttime, with women less likely to be working fulltime. And, they weren’t working for personal fulfilment – they were working because they had to.
Like Caroline Nola, Rochelle Winders, 57, expected it wouldn’t take long to find work again when she was made redundant four months ago. The experienced office manager hadn’t been jobless for more than two decades. But since then she’s applied for more than 40 roles without success. On the occasions she made it to an interview she seemed to be passed over for candidates who were younger, or less experienced.
‘‘What I’m finding when you’re getting interviews is that girls in their 20s or 30s are looking for somebody a bit younger. Or they’re asking, ‘‘wouldn’t you be bored here? Is it enough for you’?’’
Winders owns her own home and her daughter has moved in to help pay the bills. Recently single, Winders can’t cover her costs on the $300 Winz stipend, and she’s resorted to applying for casual, part-time and night work. ‘‘I got quite depressed,’’ she said. ‘‘I just couldn’t bring myself to do any
Director of Longevity International
housework. I’d think, ‘well tomorrow is another day’.’’
Hunting for work as an older person is made more difficult when you’ve also got health issues, Christine Pollock has discovered. She lives ‘‘benefit day to benefit day’’, eking out her $215 over the week. The 60-year-old has been out of regular employment since osteoarthritis in her toes meant she had to give up her job as a checkout operator in 2011.
While she can no longer work long shifts on her feet, she’s keen to work in an administrative role, something she has experience at from running a Domino’s Pizza franchise with her expartner. But despite upskilling with two courses in office administration, the 40-odd job applications she’s sent over the last few years have all come to nothing.
The Ka¯ piti Coast woman said her age ‘‘gravely’’ disadvantages her. She said potential employers write her off because they think she’ll leave soon, or because they assume she’ll want high wages – when really she’s happy ‘‘starting at the bottom’’.
‘‘I do want to work. I’m sick of struggling on the benefit, I can’t survive on it.’’
She receives the Supported Living Payment topped up with Disability Allowance, and is worried because she doesn’t have family she can call on to help her. She wants to visit her son and grandson in Hastings, but paying for petrol or a bus ticket is out of reach: ‘‘I can’t do anything, my hands are completely financially tied.’’
Pollock’s plight shows why the welfare system needs a major overhaul, says University of Auckland’s Business School associate professor Susan St John. Ageism is one thing but its effects on finances and retirement preparation is a ‘‘huge issue’’. ‘‘We need to address the reality of what is actually happening. It’s not just ageism – it’s that technology is changing and the nature of work is changing.’’
There was evidence that more seniors were accessing benefits and food grants, and the welfare system did nothing to help, she said. The ‘‘very, very inadequate’’ jobseeker benefit, or the Supported Living Payment for people with disabilities, meant people, particularly single people, were burning through savings or worse, going into debt.
An overhaul of the welfare system was needed, as well as more support for the pre-retirement population. There needed to be an acceptance that part-time work with part-time benefits was OK, instead of the ‘get a full time job and get off the benefit’, one-size-fits-all solution, she said.
Financial stability is at the back of Gisborne grandmother Heather Hannam’s mind all the time. The 58-year-old ‘‘Jack of all trades’’ is measured and in good humour while discussing a blight of bad luck that saw her lose two jobs in short succession. But she becomes emotional recounting the frustration of being consistently passed over for jobs.
The former Smiths City staffer lost her job after her local store shut shop, and a subsequent administration gig with Totalspan went the same way not long after. After applying for close to a dozen jobs she believed she was more than skilled to do, she found casual work for Countdown, delivering online grocery orders.
With a background in administration, she has taken a $10-an-hour pay cut, but it lets her chip away at her mortgage. She has given up thinking it’s an interim solution. She can’t bear the thought of going through the job-hunt rigmarole again.
‘‘It’s so disheartening,’’ she said. ‘‘You know that first 60 seconds when you walk into an interview and they look at you? And you (realise),
‘‘It is challenging even for the most hardened individual to get rejected 30 or 40 times with the platitude ‘we’ve found someone who’s a better fit’.’’ Tony Edmonds
they’ve already made their decision . . . they just look at you and see a wrinkly old lady.’’
Hannam and her husband are paying off a mortgage but are relying on their KiwiSaver to go freehold. Neither can afford to be unemployed. ‘‘We both need to be working.’’
The problem isn’t going away – by 2038 it’s estimated one in five of us will be over 65. The Productivity Commission is due to make public its final report on technology and the future of work in March. Draft reports have suggested that automated technology may not disrupt the availability of work as expected, but it also notes that in an environment of rapid tech change, there weren’t the expected rates of start-ups or high productivity.
The Career Development Association of New Zealand submitted to the commission that the country scored poorly on the provision of lifelong career development services and support for groups vulnerable to technology change, or for career development and transitions. The National Council of Women recommended an equitable job assessment tool to assess CVs for jobs that don’t require a skill recognised by a formal qualification.
When Ross North finished his last job in financial management, he was earning more than $100,000 a year. He had ‘‘worked hard and saved hard’’ for retirement.
Instead, he began spending it, as months trickled into years without employment. After two years of fruitless job-hunting, he opted for early retirement at 63 – though he said that had he found a job he would have been happy to work past retirement age. He turned 65 in August and collecting his superannuation has made things easier, financially. He’s still in the work mindset though, getting up at 5.30 every day to go to the gym.
He was in no doubt the issue was ageism, but said like other entrenched discrimination, it was impossible to prove. On a couple of occasions he called employers to ask why he had been rejected, but got only cagey answers about ‘‘more suitable’’ candidates.
Caroline Nola agrees. She doesn’t know for sure it’s her age to blame for her being out of work, but says most of the Australianowned chain stores she’s applying for require a passport or driver’s licence from applicants, so it’s easy enough for them to work it out.
The reasons given have ranged from other applicants having more experience, to hiring inhouse. Sometimes interviewers don’t even bother texting or emailing back with a reason.
But she also wonders if her generation’s unwillingness to ‘‘sell ourselves’’ is a stumbling block. ‘‘I sometimes wonder if I’m too straightforward. Our generation, we think our work ethic, and our experience, should speak for itself. We grew up being told not to show off.’’
Director of Longevity International NZ Tony Edmonds said the ‘‘more suitable candidates’’ line was one older generations were used to hearing – and despised. ‘‘It is challenging even for the most hardened individual to get rejected 30 or 40 times with the platitude ‘we’ve found someone who’s a better fit’.’’
He said older people would appreciate straight talking from employers, even if that meant a oneline
rejection email.
Edmonds said the failure to hire older people was often based on myths.
It was a fallacy that older people were stuck in their ways and did not understand the progress that’s being made in technology and would not be able to cope, he said.
Young people misunderstand older generations, he said: they still have sex, they still dream, they still want to keep ahead of technology, they still want to create positive change in the world.
Employers who neglected to look after their older employees and take on older hires would soon be on the back foot, he said. ‘‘Employers in New Zealand need to wake up to the fact our population is ageing.’’ Financial difficulty isn’t the only effect of going long periods without work. Masterton artist and brewery worker Ursula Macfarlane spent 25 years working in the IT industry as a systems analyst. When she decided to study anthropology, a degree she finished in 2014, she struggled to get back into the workforce. The 61-year-old said she’s scraping by, and if she doesn’t go crazy with spending she expects she’ll be OK, but she missed the social connection of work. In some ways, being away from the daily grind brought home to her how much she wanted to try something different – she can’t bear the thought of going back to a computer-based job.
Former Equal Employment Opportunities commissioner Jackie Blue said employers needed to value and hire older workers who brought reliability, experience, and an excellent work ethic.
‘‘Older workers may need to be supported or transitioned into reducing their hours, modifying their work they do or retraining.
‘‘Older workers need to be cherished. We will be needing everyone who can work to continue working if we are to sustain our economy going forward.’’
Things might be looking up for Rochelle Winders, who has just received an offer of employment. Although she’s a home owner, Winders hadn’t thought about joining KiwiSaver, until now. She intends to sign up as soon as possible, and she’s looking forward to getting back into a working routine where weekends would typically be spent cleaning the home, and doing chores.
She hasn’t enjoyed the feelings of idleness that have pervaded her on her job hunt.
‘‘If you start feeling useless, you are useless,’’ she said. She knows she’s not: ‘‘I’ve always added a lot of value to companies. I thought it would be one or two weeks (of unemployment). I did not expect this.’’
‘‘I have no hopes for my future, I’m afraid that I may end up on the streets.’’ Christchurch woman, 52