Older Australians, who lose their jobs, are finding it hard to get a new one.

A study, just published by the Bureau of Statistics shows that, on average, it takes men aged 55 and over four months to either find a new job, or leave the nation’s workforce.

Women of the same age are typically waiting even longer.  The average, for them is four and a half months.

The situation facing Australia’s older workers may already be even worse than these figures suggest.

That’s because the calculations, on which these findings are based were for 12 months to February this year.

With the global economic crisis still hitting Australia’s job market very hard, the already grim situation facing Australia’s older workers may well have deteriorated since then.

Predictably, Australia’s employers were more eager to take on younger workers, who they could reasonably expect would stay longer in their jobs.

The bureau reported that, on average, 15-19 year olds had the shortest waits, when they were looking for new jobs.

They spent an average of just 13 weeks, waiting for work.

The average wait, for Australians of all ages, was 16 weeks.

That wait was the same for both men and women.

The bureau also reported that 1.7 million Australians had looked for work at some time during the 12 month period.

It noted too, that 117,700, or 7 per cent of these people. had spent the whole year looking for work, without finding it.