Older Australians are clinging to work for longer, a 20-year analysis of workplace participation rates has found.

It is particularly true for women older than 60, whose labour force participation has jumped by 300 per cent.

The researchers, who collated the findings from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research at the University of Melbourne, say the figures are significant because they show a "cultural shift" in favour of older workers.

They found 45 per cent of women aged 60-64 were in the labour force in 2013, up from just 15.2 per cent in 1993.

Overall, there was a 300 per cent jump over two decades.

The University of South Australia's Professor Barbara Pocock said the findings were significant.

"That is a really remarkable shift in the Australian labour market in that the last two decades where women have entered the labour market, they've increased their skill levels," she said.

"So, there's a driver on the side of, 'I want to make a contribution' and 'I find work interesting'."

Professor Pocock argued there was also strong economic pressure to stay and work longer in order to secure enough superannuation for retirement.

"That's especially the case for women whose super balances are around half the level of men," she said.

"When we look at, for example, the rate of divorce, there are new and unexpected pressures to earn for longer for many men and for especially women."

Professor Pocock said cost-of-living pressures were also a factor, but primarily people remained in the workforce because they had a much lower level of accumulation than they believed they needed.

"I think there is also a factor for many women in that they entered the workforce late, or have had interrupted participation in the labour market," she said.

"Many of them also enjoy their jobs and want to stay active and involved in the workplace, so it's partly economic and it's partly about social connection and wanting to make a contribution."

The University of Melbourne report found trends were similar for men.

By 2013, 17 per cent of men older than 65 were working or looking for work — double the number from 20 years earlier.

Professor Pocock said the fact people are living longer is having a significant impact.

"Some of it's a very positive story about feeling able and wanting to make a contribution, and to stay active and engaged," she said.

Employers conscious about losing 'intellectual capital'

The researchers who collated the findings said the figures showed there was a "cultural shift" in favour of older workers, and Council on the Ageing (COTA) chief executive Ian Yates agreed.

Mr Yates argued there were two concrete factors influencing the labour market.

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"One is continuing age discrimination and the other is a significant shift in favour of older workers and of older people themselves deciding that they want to continue working," he said.

"And the full impact over time of the abolition of compulsory retirement, which used to see many people forced to retire — that's now illegal."

Mr Yates believed more and more employers were conscious that if they let their older workforce walk out the door, they would lose enormous intellectual capital and experience that was not easily replaceable.

Mr Yates said older Australians could stay in work longer because the types of jobs they are doing have changed.

He predicts in the next 20 years, the proportion of people working late into their 60s and 70s will continue to increase.

"We don't have a majority of our workforce now in physically demanding jobs, and jobs that are not conducive or actually affect their health. So, that certainly is part of it," he said.

But the director of the University of Sydney Business School, Professor John Buchanan, said that was not necessarily a good thing.

"If you look at the quality of the jobs that are available to older workers, you have very high levels of part-time work, you have very high levels of casual work, you have very high levels of self-employment," he said.

"I've yet to see any robust data to show that that's actually all by choice.

"People usually want predictability in hours, they usually want some kind of certainty in the offer that's there, but they'll simply take what's on offer.

"So, yes, it's really good that people can work longer if they want to, but I think there's a lot more to the story than that."