New analysis by SGS Partner Terry Rawnsley shows the average Australian woman can expect to retire at age 64.3 with women working in Australia’s more populated cities retiring earlier than their counterparts across the country.
“Overall, women in Australia are staying in the workforce longer, and women in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane retire sooner than their counterparts in Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra. Internationally, Australian women are working longer than women in the European Union but retiring earlier than women in New Zealand, Japan and Korea,” said Mr Rawnsley.
“Current trends also suggest the age of retirement of both men and women in Australia will converge in the next five years,” he said.
Women in Australia are working longer; women-dominated industries on the rise
To measure retirement, we adopted the same approach as measuring life expectancy. That is, for a person aged 45 today, at what age are they expected to retire?
The age of retirement estimate for women in Australia clearly shows the impact of increasing labour force participation rates of younger cohorts of women. The expected age of women withdrawing from the market was below 60 years until 1990 when the age of retirement age began to rise rapidly to reach 64.3 years in 2018.
The increasing age of retirement reflects an abundance of jobs in female-dominated industries in recent years and a generally stronger labour market, which has encouraged ongoing participation among women, and the decline in many male-dominated industries explains Mr Rawnsley.
“Employment in male-dominated industries, such as mining and manufacturing, is stagnating. Which means the ability to remain in employment in these industries is a challenge for older workers. This has resulted in a small decline in the age of retirement for men since 2014," said Mr Rawnsley.
"On the flip side, the increasing age of retirement for women is driven by changing the behaviour of younger cohorts and an abundance of jobs in female-dominated industries, in particular, health care and social assistance,” he said.