Alan Williams is in need of a job. He's 62 and found it tough going here.
So out of a sense of adventure - and necessity - he has taken up a management position in Vietnam.
"They have a different way of thinking. The respect for older workers is more prevalent than here in Australia - they recognise that older people can bring a wealth of experience in some areas and they're willing to hand it over to younger people and work together," Mr Williams told SBS World News.
After stopping work for nine years to care for his wife, Mr Williams recently decided to return to full-time work.
But his age and living in a regional city made finding a local job difficult.
"Caring for nine years in my case, wording changes in interviews, wording changes when you're looking up SEEK for example for a job interview. They have changed the terminology these days. When you put an online application in many times you don't hear back, and you don't get any feedback," Mr Williams said.
Research by the Regional Australia Institute Australia's shows some regions are experiencing a growing pension crisis with some regions already having 20 per cent of the population reliant on the age pension.
"Coastal areas like Port Macquarie, the Far South Coast of NSW, Fraser Coast in Queensland are significantly impacted," the institute's chief executive officer, Jack Archer, said.
"There is also inland areas parts of north western Victoria particularly where we are really seeing a lot of that working age population going into retirement and becoming disengaged in the workforce.
"What we're seeing is there is a lot of spending in those economies and it is difficult for them to grow."
The report warns the nation's pension bill would rise from $45 billion to $51 billion within three years if more efforts are not made to help mature workers get a job.
And while not every mature Australian wants to work, Mr Archer said there were plenty who do.
"There's a lot of evidence that says in that group people who would like to work either more or full-time but can't find their place in the workforce," he said.
"We have heard from lots of people and we know there is a big discrimination issue.
"Unless we get some targeted action in these areas where it's really biting we're not going to solve what's going to be a national crisis in the next few years. "
A recent report by older Australians charity The Benevolent Society looked at the drivers of ageism.
More than 1,400 people of all ages were surveyed across all age groups exploring community attitudes and beliefs towards ageing and older people.
The report noted about 30 per cent of those surveyed believed employers should be able to make older employees take on a reduced role, and one in four thought employers would get better value out of training younger rather than older people.
The Council on the Ageing's Ian Yates agreed age discrimination in the workforce remains rampant across the country.
"What people face is an out of date view of older people and older workers, but in regional areas often there is not the range and choice of jobs," Mr Yates said.
"And I think it's also perhaps not the same level of assistance that's available.
"We're talking to the government at the moment about the need for increased assistance for mature-aged workers - not letting them become unemployed but actually getting there and supporting them to find work."
Mr Archer said the institute was proposing a range of initiatives to improve the work prospects of mature regional workers.
"What we would like to see is a real focus on these regions that are most affected where the pension crisis is very real now and a package of incentives," he said.
"We need a more comprehensive trial of initiatives targeted to those places where this matters most and that's what's going to prepare the country for the crisis coming down the road."
