It's good to see you too.
We'd like to thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to present our views on employability in Canada as it impacts on older workers. My colleague Bill Gleberzon and I will split the presentation today.
Members of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons are 50 and older. We have 400,000 across the country. We actually advocate on behalf of the 11 million Canadians 50 and older across the country. So this is the segment that will be our focus.
The 50-plus band is made up of two broad groups--pre-seniors, those 50 to 64; and seniors, those 65 and older. Both groups face challenges in employability. For pre-seniors, there is the common problem of finding a job in the face of employers' ageist prejudices. You may have seen recently in the media that Kelly Services reports 63% of 10,000 respondents 55 and older reporting discrimination based on age in seeking a job. This is an unfortunate reality that CARP's employment website, theskillsmatch.ca, finds regularly.
Seniors continue to face mandatory retirement in too many parts of the country, while others worry about the threat of mandatory employment. We hear from our members that many want to retire and others either want to or have to work. Clearly the traditional rocking chair image isn't even a perception now. Those who retire tend to remain active, and often are open to returning to work part time or as consultants. Those who remain in the workforce also have much to offer.
As in the rest of the world, Canada is experiencing an unprecedented demographic evolution that will see one in four Canadians 65 and older by 2030. At the same time, the current lower birth rate has already created a smaller cohort, or too small a cohort, of younger people. This means a shortage of workers to replace the surge of retirement by war babies born between 1939 and 1945 and baby boomers born between 1946 and 1965. Immigration alone will not fill this gap.
Although CARP does not believe in mandatory retirement and strongly opposes mandatory employment, attitudes and practices must change if we are to embrace this new reality.