NI 'must welcome ageing workforce'

NI workforce will be increasingly older, statistics suggest

Northern Ireland employers heard on Thursday about the challenges they will have to face in learning to accommodate an increasingly ageing population.

This was a key message put forward at a conference to be held in Templepatrick, County Antrim.

Falling birthrates and people living longer are two factors which will lead to the number of people aged 65-and-over doubling in Northern Ireland by 2036, the charity Age Concern has said.

Chairman of Age Concern in Northern Ireland, Dr James McKenna, said the focus of the conference would be on the need for attitudes in the workforce to change to accommodate a changing population.

It is to draw the attention of people in business and commerce to the fact that there are new opportunities with an older population

Dr James McKenna

He said businesses could also benefit greatly from employing skilled and experienced older people.

"The purpose of the conference is to focus employers to the shift in the workforce," he said.

"There will be more older people in the workforce and they will have to adapt their employment practice to that.

"It is also to draw the attention of people in business and commerce to the fact that there are new opportunities with an older population and they might be interested in pursuing those.''

Falling birth rate

In her annual report for 2000, Northern Ireland's chief medical officer Dr Henrietta Campbell said the province's birth rate had fallen to its lowest ever level.

She added that population figures indicated that the number of older people was continuing to increase.

Women make up a much greater proportion of older people, with almost twice as many women as men in the 75-and-over age group.

Overall life expectancy is improving each year.

The average life expectancy of a male born in Northern Ireland in 2001 is 74.3 years and is 79.6 years for a female.