Many Australians in their twilight years are jumping out of retirement and back into the workforce to make friends, regain a sense of accomplishment and keep up with rising living costs.
A survey of Australians aged 60 years and above by online marketplace Fiverr found one in 10 had returned to some kind of work after retirement and another 13 per cent were considering it.
More than 70 per cent of the 1011 sample group said the extra income from casual or part-time work to supplement their superannuation would help cover higher living costs, with prices for petrol, energy, insurance and rent still painfully expensive.
Not all retirees are financially motivated to return to work, however.
Having a sense of purpose or accomplishment, or forging new social connections, were also common reasons to get back into the workforce.
Older Australians were also spending their extra income on things like travel and home improvements, as well as bills and other essentials.
Separate research by the Council on the Ageing similarly found two in 10 pensioners would consider returning to the workforce.
"People's reasons for wanting to stay in, or return to, work can vary greatly, but there's little doubt that for some, the decision to delay retirement could be driven by concerns about cost of living," COTA chief executive Patricia Sparrow said.
A trend towards longer working lives is also observable in Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The average age of retirement has lifted from 48 in 1990 to 55.4 in 2023, coinciding with climbing life expectancies.
The pension age is now at 67, and most working today expect to retire in their mid-sixties.
The extra supply of experienced labour has been welcomed by employers struggling to fill vacant positions.
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive officer Luke Achterstraat said labour shortages were still acute, particularly in hospitality and food services.
"So certainly, the ability to hire experienced Australians is a welcome development," Mr Achterstraat told AAP.
He said it was encouraging to see the federal government incentivising the participation of older Australians in the workforce.
Under a measure that has recently been made permanent, pensioners can now work more without losing so much of their payments.
Yet older Australians still face various barriers to participation, including ageism.
The Fiverr survey found age-related discrimination to be the number one concern for those returning to work, followed by skills gaps.
Fiverr spokesperson Oliver Woolrych said only one in six retirees who went back to the workforce actually experienced ageism.
"The amount of hesitation within the cohort is much higher than the reality of what's happening once they return to the workforce," he said.
COTA's Ms Sparrow said systemic ageism was locking people out of the workforce altogether, with one in three recruiters reluctant to hire an older person.
"In many cases, systemic ageism forces people out of the workforce and into retirement earlier than they want, which isn't just bad for older workers but it's bad for all of us," she said.
The head of the body representing older Australians said the federal government's changes to the aged pension to allow them to work more was a "good first step".
"There's still work to be done on simplifying the system, including better aligning it with the personal tax income system, but we're hopeful that it will allow some older workers who wish to work get back into the workforce," she said.
