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Source: ONE News -
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Employers have been warned to expect rising labour costs when New Zealand's generation of baby boomers retire.
Demographic expert Professor Natalie Jackson said there would be enormous competition for workers aged 15-24 from next year.
"The idea that there is a bucket of young people out there to be drawn on has got to be put behind us," she told NZI Business.
"Labour costs will go up and people will have to expect to pay more for their labour and also retain their older workers."
Jackson's comments follow the launch at the University of Waikato of a new research institute that will focus on demographic and economic analysis.
The National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis (NIDEA) brings together demographers from the university's Population Studies Centre, economists from Waikato Management School and public policy experts from Wellington-based Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust.
Jackson, institute director and vice-president of the New Zealand Population Association, said the institute's research would help to inform the business community.
New Zealand was a "baby" in terms of the ageing process, she said.
"But New Zealand's baby boom if we go back to the 50s and 60s was that we had the highest birth rates in the world and the longest boom.
"That means we are going to have the greatest increase in the developed world in numbers of elderly as the baby boomers move into older age."
Jackson said 12% of New Zealand's population was aged 65 and over, though that figure varied across regions. The rate in Thames/Coromandel is 23%.
Nationally, for every 14 young people currently entering the workforce, 10 people leave.
However, in some areas that figure changed to just eight entering for every 10 leaving, Jackson said.
