No country for old men
By
Julia Newbould
Mon 03 Mar 2008
I came upon a very personally devastating statistic the other day.
I came upon a very personally devastating statistic the other day.
The median age of the Australian population is 36.6, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. So it has been confirmed that I'm now officially older than half the surrounding population.
Once I emerged from wallowing about this, I pondered what it means for me professionally and in general.
Professionally, it means we are now targeting the minority of Australia's clients and should be aware of that. Perhaps a more prudent target would be the younger clients who outnumber the rest of us and who, like us, are only going to get older.
There's a difference in the way we need to communicate with the younger generation and there are different needs to fulfil.
And while looking at the different ways to communicate with the gen Xers as both clients and potential clients there is also the reality of having to hire much younger staff and the need to appeal, motivate and encourage them.
Other ABS statistics released included the rise of part-time employment from 19 per cent 20 years ago, to 28 per cent now. Men are more likely than women to work full time (85 per cent and 55 per cent respectively).
Part-time work is more prevalent among the younger and older age groups. These are important trends to note when hiring. Also, fixed-term employment contracts are the most common among professionals.
Younger people are also the ones who will be buying your practices, so I think we all need to change our focus, even slightly, to keep ourselves relevant to the new statistics.
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