I own and run Australia's leading niche job board for older workers and I can assure you that employers are starting to realise the benefits of older workers and having a diverse work environment. We have over 13,000 older jobseekers from all over Australia and have pilots, executives, cleaners, basically ranging from the unskilled to the very highly skilled executive. Many of the larger companies are not targetting older workers to ensure they have some balance and life experience in their organisation. They are also looking for reliability and some problem solving skills which of course most older workers bring with them. There is certainly a place for older workers and many employers, both big and small are realising that.

Age discrimination is one of the widest forms of discrimination in Australia as it has yet to be stigmatised. It is also something that is going to affect us all. We need to start having a proactive conversation with the public and private sector to encourage organisations to recruit from this often ignored but valuable talent pool. At Adage.com.au, Australia's leading job board for mature age workers, we have seen a 30% increase in jobseekers registering with us over the past couple of months. While employers proclaim they don't discriminate based on age we believe the only way of truly validating this statement is to advertise positions in targeted forums as many mature age jobseekers have disengaged from traditional spaces after little success. If anyone has any questions in relation to this area please email me at heidi@adage.com.au