"7 out of 10 Middle-Aged Job Seekers Experienced Involuntary Resignation"

Federation of Korean Industries Announces '2022 Survey on Job-Seeking Activities of Middle-Aged and Older Adults'
36.8% of Job Seekers Are Long-Term Unemployed for Over 6 Months
Middle-Aged and Older Adults' Desired Retirement Age 69.4 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Yeju] A survey found that 7 out of 10 middle-aged and older job seekers left their jobs involuntarily. Among job seekers, 36.8% have been unemployed for more than six months, and they identified job matching as the most necessary service for reemployment.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) Middle-aged and Older Job Hope Center announced the results of the "2022 Survey on Job-Seeking Activities of Middle-aged and Older Adults" on the 31st, targeting 1,020 job seekers aged 40 and above.

The average desired retirement age among the respondents was 69.4 years, which is 2.4 years higher than the 67 years recorded in the 2019 survey conducted by the center. Additionally, 65.6% of the job seekers expressed a desire to continue working beyond the age of 70.

Among middle-aged and older job seekers, 72.5% reported involuntary retirement due to reasons such as ▲recommended resignation, honorary retirement, layoffs, contract termination (53.1%) ▲business downturn, temporary closure or shutdown (11.7%) ▲management deterioration due to COVID-19 (7.7%), while only 10.7% responded that they retired due to reaching the mandatory retirement age. The survey also found that 36.8% of middle-aged and older job seekers have been in long-term unemployment for over six months.

The reasons middle-aged and older job seekers hope for reemployment were ▲economic reasons such as living expenses, personal allowance, and children's education costs at 49.5%, followed by ▲enjoyment of working at 22.2%, ▲health maintenance at 11.3%, and ▲passing on acquired expertise, skills, and know-how at 7.7%.

The desired monthly wage for reemployment among middle-aged and older job seekers was 2.73 million KRW. This amount is 290,000 KRW higher than the 2.44 million KRW desired wage surveyed by the center in May 2020. When looking at the wage ranges, ▲32.3% desired between 2 million KRW and less than 2.5 million KRW, ▲23.7% between 2.5 million KRW and less than 3 million KRW, and ▲14.5% between 3 million KRW and less than 4 million KRW, with 5.0% hoping for 5 million KRW or more.

Regarding the most necessary services for reemployment, job seekers selected ▲job matching (32.3%) as the top service, followed by ▲recruitment events and job information provision (21.4%), ▲employment-linked vocational training and technical education (19.9%), and ▲job-seeking skills improvement education (10.0%).

Among the respondents, 57.2% said they would change their desired job category to one different from their main previous career upon reemployment, with the most common reason being "difficulty in reemployment in the existing field due to age restrictions" (55.6%).

Park Cheolhan, Director of the FKI Small and Medium Business Cooperation Center, stated, "Middle-aged and older job seekers want to work immediately, but there are not many desired job opportunities. Instead of insisting on their own field, lowering their expectations and utilizing reemployment education will be very helpful." He added, "We will strive to provide various educational services through the affiliated Middle-aged and Older Job Hope Center to shorten the unemployment period and enhance reemployment capabilities of job seekers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.