The expected retirement age in Sydney has climbed steadily over the past 20 years but is still up to eight years younger than workers in some of Australia’s biggest trading partners.
Men in Sydney now aged 45 years are expected to retire at 65.3 years, while women are expected to retire around a year earlier at 64 years, a report by consultancy firm KPMG predicts. Since 2000 the city’s expected retirement age for women has risen by 2.6 years, while the increase for men has been 1.4 years.
But men and women in Australia leave the workforce much earlier than in Japan and South Korea, Australia’s second- and third-biggest export markets respectively. Women in South Korea were expected to work until 72.3 years in 2018, or 8.1 years older than Australian women (South Korean men were expected to retire 7.3 years older than Australian men). Japanese men were expected to work until 71 years, nearly six years older than Australian men (there was a five-year gap for women).
New Zealand workers are also expected to stay in the workforce longer than their Australian counterparts – five years longer for men and two years longer for women. Israel, US and Sweden also have older expected retirement ages than Australia.
Terry Rawnsley, a demographer and urban economist at KPMG who authored the report, said these international comparisons along with workplace trends including the shift away from manual labour to service jobs and strong labour force conditions suggest there’s “more upside” for retirement ages in Australia.
“Retirement ages in the high 60s and possibly even the low 70s are not out of the question in the longer term for Australia,” he said.
Although, expected retirement ages in Australia are several years older than those in France, Greece, Spain and Italy.
“The differences between countries in the expected age of retirement are the result of economic and cultural factors, and the age at which retirement incomes can be accessed,” the KPMG report said.
