Older workers can be more productive than their younger counterparts, an expert on ageing told a conference yesterday.

Victor Marshall said studies have shown people are discriminated against because of unfair stereotyping as they reach their latter years.

Dr. Marshall, the director of the Institute of Aging and Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, was speaking at the Ageing at Work conference at Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

The event was set up to discuss ways of helping deal with the Island's ageing population, with the number of seniors expected to double to reach 22 percent of the population by 2030.

Dr. Marshall said: "For any given ability, for example, the speed of neurological functioning, you will find declines in functional ability with age — but probably not so great as to lead to unsatisfactory work performance. And the slope will be different for any other conditions you consider.

"All this indicates just how unfair it is to stereotype older workers as less able than younger workers.

"Are older workers less productive than younger workers? (Research) suggests that while it is true that older workers, on average, cost more to employ than younger workers, there is no reason to believe that their performance and the value of their accumulated knowledge do not compensate the higher cost.

"I would argue that there are many reasons to think that older workers can be as productive or even more productive than younger workers, particularly if efforts are made to increase job flexibility and to design jobs that are suitable for them."