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When you can’t clean a room, you can’t sell it – but reforms aimed at helping the worker shortage in accommodation, tourism and other industries by making it easier for pensioners to work have failed, according to latest data.

“The latest job vacancy data confirms the Federal Government’s half-hearted pension reforms are inadequate to fix our unprecedented worker shortage. We need to get serious about fixing this problem once and for all,” Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director at the Institute of Public Affairs, said yesterday.

Wild commented on data the Australian Bureau of Statistics released yesterday, showing over 438,000 job vacancies nationwide. Almost a quarter of Australian businesses are struggling to find workers. The level of job vacancies represents a 240% increase from May 2020.

Almost 43% of Australian businesses in the ‘Accommodation and Food Services’ category, which includes hotels and restaurants, are seeking workers. This is the highest of any category apart from ‘Public Administration and Safety’, where the vacancy rate is marginally higher.

In December, the Federal Government passed its pension work bonus reform, which allows age pensioners and veterans to earn only $226 per week (up from $150 per week) before their benefits start to be reduced by 50 cents on the dollar.

“Since these pension changes were enacted, job vacancies have only decreased by 1%, which is a clear demonstration that comprehensive reform is needed,” Wild said.

“The IPA has repeatedly called on politicians to remove this inefficient and discriminatory barrier to work once and for all. Today’s data shows that they urgently need to get on with completing this simple and effective reform in full,” Wild added.

A recent survey by National Seniors revealed that 20% of all pensioners would consider re-joining the workforce if work restrictions were adequately eased. That is equivalent to over 510,000 workers. Currently, only 3% of the pensioners in Australia work compared to 25% in New Zealand.

“The IPA presented research to the Senate Standing Committee for Community Affairs prior to the reforms passing Parliament, which showed it is fiscally and economically sound for all work barriers facing age pensioners and veterans to be removed,” Wild said.

“The dignity of work, a key tenet in the Australian way of life, must be extended to Australia’s age pensioners who are able, and importantly, wanting to make a contribution.”

Previous analysis by the IPA revealed that Australia’s worker shortage crisis is costing Australians $32 billion in foregone wages and the Federal Government $7 billion in foregone income tax revenue.

“This is revenue that could have been invested in roads, schools, and hospitals or been used to help pay off our spiralling national debt,” Wild said.

“Removing all red-tape and barriers for Australian pensioners to get back into the workforce, without suffering significant financial penalties, is a simple and effective policy measure that is good for them and good for our nation.”