xv) Demographic Changes
Not understanding and utilizing the demographic changes, such as ageing population and low population growth in Australia. With the declining number of young people starting work for the first time, there is a need to retain potential retirees. In Australia
"...In the next four years, 17 percent of the workforce will be older than 55 and that proportion will continue to grow..."
Fiona Smith, 2008a
In addition, there is increasing employment demand, ie
"...18% in the construction industry, 13% in the accommodation, cafe and restaurant industry and 12 % in the wholesale industry..."
Fiona Smith, 2008a
Therefore we need to redefine what work looks like, ie
"...the stigma around part-time work not equating a career or a promotion, or part-time workers not being valued as full-time workers has to change, and employers are going to have to create more part-time roles as career roles......these include flexible work options such as part-time work, consultancy and working from home, as well as extended leave for around the world trips, to spend time with family or attend seminars on financial planning. Retirees are also lured back as mentors..."
Fiona Smith, 2008a
. Need to build a corporate community. According to Goffee (2008), this involves the building of sociability and solidarity. Sociability involves increasing social interaction, reducing formality, limiting hierarchical differences, recruiting compatible people, helping those who are in trouble, encouraging the sharing of ideas, emotions and interests. Solidarity involves developing competitor awareness, creating a sense of urgency, giving commitment to objectives, targets, goals, etc, stimulating the will to win, setting demanding standards, focussing on performance, moving people around and celebrating success.
More on Population Trends
"...that 300 years of steady and often rapid population growth has ended. By 2100, the global population will have peaked and started to decline..."
Lancet as quoted by Stephen Davies, 2024
Basically, people are not having enough children to keep populations stable, ie
"...In the past 60 years, and particularly the past 30, there has been a precipitous decline in birth rates everywhere......the biggest and steepest declines are in places such as in the Middle East and Africa......few countries now have a birth rate above replacement level of 2.1 children per couple (the level needed to keep the population stable)..."
Stephen Davies, 2024
It has been known for a while that
"...economic development and urbanisation led to women having fewer children..."
Stephen Davies, 2024
Furthermore, more research is required to understand human fertility and the psychological and sociological impacts of human reproduction.
What does this mean?
"...it means we are at the cusp of a massive change or shift in the nature of economics, politics, international relationships - in fact, the whole of human life. All kinds of assumptions will have to be discarded and if we continue to act on them, we will be disappointed because they will not work anymore..."
Stephen Davies, 2024
Population growth is the basis for economic growth, ie
"...fewer children means a smaller part of the population is available for productive work, and they'll have to support a larger unproductive part. Fewer people means lower demand, which is multiplied by the higher proportion of older people..."
Stephen Davies, 2024
This will make politics and policies that are tuned to growth no longer viable; some examples:
- welfare state, especially caring for the elderly
- larger government spending
- decline in labour market participation
- massive migration from areas of declining population, etc