The numbers that should embarrass every HR team
New Zealand’s over-65 workforce is not a future problem to solve. It is a present economic force that most employers are sleepwalking past.
The NZIER Business of Ageing 2026 report, released in April, quantifies the scale. New Zealanders aged 65 and over currently generate nearly $9 billion in paid work income and $5.1 billion in self-employment income annually. They contribute $55 billion in consumer spending and pay $13.1 billion in tax. Their unpaid work, including caregiving and volunteering, adds another $20 billion.
The trajectory is sharper still. Earnings from paid work by over-65s are projected to grow from $8.7 billion today to more than $50 billion by 2074. Total tax contributions from this cohort are projected to hit $80.1 billion.
NZIER Associate Todd Krieble puts it plainly: “Older people are contributing across almost every part of the economy, and at a scale that is frequently underestimated.”
The pipeline is shrinking from both ends
The employed population aged 65 and over is projected to more than double, from 217,400 in 2024 to 477,800 by 2074, lifting their share of the national workforce from 7.1% to 10.9%. Already, 24% of people aged 65 and over are in paid work.
Stats NZ’s national labour force projections, released in June 2025, showed the number of Kiwis working past 80 is expected to grow 389% by 2078, reaching around 44,000 people.
Meanwhile, with a birth rate of 1.5 against the 2.1 needed for natural replacement, the younger worker pipeline is contracting. EMA Manager of Employment Relations and Safety Paul Jarvie argued in December 2024 that “New Zealand is running out of workers, a phenomenon shared with many other countries.”
This is the structural squeeze. Fewer young workers entering, more older workers available and willing, and most employers doing nothing to bridge the gap.
The 80% employer failure
Jarvie’s most damning observation from December 2024: “80% of employers have no strategies in place to retain this older group of employees.” This from the organisation representing more than 7,000 businesses in the upper North Island.
The commercial case is not sentimental. Jarvie wrote: “Investing in older workers is well worth it – long-standing employees already know the business and have substantial business IP and knowledge.” He also addressed the displacement myth directly, noting that evidence shows keeping more older people in work actually improves employment prospects for younger workers.
UK research cited by the EMA found that if people worked an extra three years, it could add 3.25% to real GDP per year by 2033. New Zealand faces the same structural dynamic.
What the practical levers look like
Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Greta Bond identifies flexible hours and upskilling as the two most effective tools. Her critique of government is pointed: “The Government’s really good at supporting people into work, but it’s really, sometimes, a little bit amiss when it’s supporting people to continue working.”
The National Forum on the Decade of Healthy Ageing, covered by Newsroom this week, presented five practical steps to reduce healthcare burden and lift economic participation. The forum’s core argument: reframing older workers as assets rather than liabilities is the essential first step.
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson added an important qualifier in 2025: “We must ensure that their participation is by choice, not necessity.” That is the right framing for businesses too. The goal is not to remove the option of retirement but to make continued participation attractive and supported.
Waiting for a policy signal means you’re already behind
The businesses building phased retirement options, structured knowledge transfer programmes, and flexible work design for older employees are not being altruistic. They are locking in competitive advantage in a market where younger workers are becoming scarcer every year. A cohort generating $14 billion in earned income today, projected to generate multiples of that within the working lifetimes of current business owners, is not a social policy question. It is a workforce strategy question, and eight in ten employers have not even started asking it.
Sources
- Population ageing is reshaping New Zealand’s economy now (2026-04-15)
- Kiwis over 65 contributing more than $34b a year to the economy (2026-04-18)
- Five times more New Zealanders to work past age of 80 – Stats NZ (2025-06-27)
- National Labour Force Projections 2024-base (2025-06-25)
- Retirement – is it for all of us, or only some of us? (2024-12-30)
- EMA’s Paul Jarvie: Retirement – is it for all of us, or only some of us? (2024-12-30)
- Hyper-ageing population can be exploited, ‘not treated as a burden’ (2026-05-07)