Older Australians are missing out on job opportunities and seeing their hopes for a secure and dignified retirement evaporate, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said.

“Today, over 170,000 Australians aged between 55 and 64 are on unemployment benefits just when they should be building their nest egg,” Mr Albanese told the Queensland Media Club on Wednesday.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that the number of older Australians out of work has increased over the past five years, despite falls in the unemployment rate.

Although the number of people unemployed in the general community fell by 5.5 per cent between December 2014 and December 2019, the number of older people out of work increased by 7.8 per cent.

The difference was even starker when it comes to underemployed workers – defined by the ABS as anyone aged 15 or older who wants to work more hours and is working less than 35 hours per week. Overall underemployment increased 7.6 per cent over the five years to December 2019.

Among the older cohort, it jumped a staggering 21.2 per cent. Mr Albanese said a Labor government would focus on building skills among older people through a vocational education effort driven by a new agency, Jobs and Skills Australia.

(Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has previously said the government already has such an organisation: the National Skills Commission.)

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