Fiji to extend retirement age to address skill

The Fijian government will extend the retirement age from 60 to 62 for specialised expert positions requiring scarce skills.

Prime Minister and Minister for Civil Service, Sitiveni Rabuka, said this is a strategic approach to retaining expertise and addressing skill shortages, which is essential to meeting the need of economic priorities and development objectives in Fiji.

According to the government, potential positions to be considered as having scarce skills include specialised physicians, surgeons, nurses, public health experts and cybersecurity experts.

Others are software developers, engineers, data scientists and analysts.

Rabuka said the extensions beyond 62 years will be evaluated case by case, with recommendations submitted by respective line ministries.

According to a February report by the ANZ bank, Fiji’s total long-term migration to Australia and New Zealand for education and employment sharply increased from 8,302 in 2022 to 19,196 in 2023, a 131.2 per cent increase year on year.