"Please Take Care of Me, New Employee Hong Gil-dong, 54 Years Old" Workplace Scene 30 Years Later

Average Age of Employed Workers Expected to Reach 54 by 2050
KCCI SGI Report... "Due to Intensified Low Birthrate and Aging"

Due to the deepening phenomena of low birth rates and aging population, it is projected that the average age of employed persons in South Korea will rise to about 54 years by 2050. This is approximately 10 years higher than the OECD countries' average age (43.8 years), highlighting the urgent need for measures to improve productivity among the elderly and address workforce supply and demand.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's SGI (Sustainable Growth Initiative) released a report titled "Age Distribution and Aging Status of Employed Persons by Sector and Implications" on the 21st.

The report estimated the average age of employed persons in South Korea in 2022 to be 46.8 years and predicted, based on Statistics Korea's future population projections and assuming current gender- and age-specific employment rates remain constant, that the average age of employed persons will exceed 50 years by 2030 and reach 53.7 years by 2050.

It further explained, "This figure is 9.9 years higher than the OECD countries' average employed age of 43.8 years in 2050."

Considering the recent trends of increasing economic activity participation among the elderly and worsening low birth rates, the report analyzed that the pace of aging among employed persons could be faster than expected.

SGI stated, “As the economic and industrial paradigm shifts toward an intangible asset-centered economy such as research and development (R&D) and software, the supply of young technical talent with creative ideas becomes increasingly important for sustainable growth,” adding, “If the supply of young and high-quality labor decreases in industries with intense international competition and rapid technological changes, it could significantly hinder the overall productivity improvement of the nation.”

In this regard, the IMF published an analytical report in 2016 stating that “labor force aging in major advanced countries such as Europe has acted as a factor reducing total factor productivity by 0.2 percentage points annually.”

Calculating the proportion of employed persons aged 50 and over by industry last year, industries classified as low-technology within manufacturing such as clothing (59.8%), leather and footwear (59.6%), wood (57.3%), and textiles (52.6%) exceeded half. In the service sector, low value-added industries such as real estate (67.8%) and business support (57.1%) showed high proportions.

Conversely, manufacturing industries like pharmaceuticals (15.7%) and electronics, computers, and telecommunications equipment (18.2%), as well as service sectors such as information and communications (16.8%) and professional scientific technology (23.8%), had relatively low proportions of elderly workers.

Kim Cheon-gu, a research fellow at SGI, expressed concern, saying, “From a corporate perspective, high-technology positions that require sufficient training periods and investment costs for acquiring necessary skills tend to prefer younger workers who have enough remaining employment duration to recover initial investment costs. Although the situation is still manageable, companies in high-technology manufacturing sectors may face recruitment difficulties in a labor supply environment where the population in their 20s and 30s is rapidly declining.”

According to Statistics Korea's 'Future Population Projections,' the population aged 20 to 30 is expected to decrease from 13.578 million in 2022 to 12.0832 million in 2030, 9.481 million in 2040, and 7.354 million in 2050.

Aging Workforce Closely Linked to Regional Extinction

[Photo by SGI, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry]

The issue of workforce aging caused by low birth rates and aging population showed a close correlation with labor mismatches, declining industrial competitiveness, and regional extinction.

SGI's regional analysis of workforce aging last year found that areas where the proportion of employed persons aged 50 and over exceeded 50% included Jeonnam (58.7%), Gangwon (55.5%), Gyeongbuk (55.2%), Jeonbuk (53.9%), and Gyeongnam (51.7%). All of these are non-metropolitan areas.

In contrast, metropolitan areas such as Seoul (38.5%), Incheon (42.6%), Gyeonggi (41.7%), and regions like Daejeon (41.4%) and Sejong (34.5%) had relatively lower proportions of employed persons aged 50 and over. SGI analyzed that, excluding Seoul, the proportion of elderly employed persons in the metropolitan area and Daejeon and Sejong has increased by more than 10 percentage points over the past decade.

To address the aging workforce issue, SGI suggested the need for ▲ improving low birth rate policies ▲ enhancing productivity among the elderly ▲ reforming wage systems ▲ improving workforce supply and demand ▲ attracting regionally specialized future strategic industries.

Kim Cheon-gu, a research fellow at SGI, stated, “The varying degrees of aging by region may influence the distribution of industrial ecosystems, suggesting the possibility of high-technology industries concentrating in metropolitan areas.”

Park Yang-su, head of SGI at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "To resolve structural domestic economic issues such as low birth rates and aging population, declining competitiveness of key industries, and regional extinction, we will conduct research on measures to increase birth rates, restore regional industrial dynamism, and supply innovative talent, and propose integrated policy alternatives for national development."

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