Half of the Elderly Did Not Receive Pension for One Year

Statistics Korea's Supplementary Survey on Elderly Population in Economic Activity on the 25th

It was found that half (49.7%) of the elderly population (aged 55-79) did not receive a pension in the past year. Although the pension receipt rate slightly increased compared to last year, half of the elderly still do not receive a pension.

On the 25th, Statistics Korea announced the results of the "2023 May Economic Activity Population Elderly Supplementary Survey," which included this information. According to the survey results, only 50.3% (7,783,000 people) of the total elderly population received an average monthly pension of 750,000 KRW. This means that more than half of the elderly do not receive a pension. However, the pension receipt rate rose by 0.9 percentage points compared to the same month last year.

Among pension recipients, the largest group (44.6%) reported receiving between 250,000 and less than 500,000 KRW. Those receiving between 500,000 and less than 1,000,000 KRW accounted for 30.2%, and those receiving between 100,000 and less than 250,000 KRW made up 6%. The proportion of recipients receiving 1,500,000 KRW or more was 12.2%.

The number of working elderly also increased compared to the previous year. The number of employed elderly was 9,122,000, an increase of 349,000 from a year ago, and the number of unemployed was 201,000, up by 1,000 from the previous year. The economic activity participation rate of the elderly rose by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year to 60.2%.

The employment rate of the elderly was 58.9, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous year. By age group, the employment rate for those aged 55-64 was 70.8%, and for those aged 65-79, it was 45.2%. Both figures increased by 0.9 and 1.3 percentage points respectively compared to the previous year. Looking at the industrial distribution of employed elderly, simple labor workers (23.2%) and service workers (13.9%) were the highest. Among the elderly, 6,361,000 (41.1%) were currently unemployed.

The elderly population aged 55-79 was 15,481,000, an increase of 384,000 (2.5%) from the previous year. The proportion of the elderly among the total population aged 15 and over (45,379,000) was 34.1%.

Two out of three elderly want to work until age 73

The proportion of elderly who want to work in the future was 68.5% (10,602,000 people) as of May this year. This is the same rate as in the same month last year. More than two out of three want to continue working.

Among elderly who wish to work, 55.8% cited "to supplement living expenses" as their reason. "Enjoyment of working" was 35.6%, "because of boredom" 4.3%, and "because society needs it" 1.2%, showing that the overwhelming reason was for livelihood. By gender, 77.3% of men and 60.3% of women wished to continue working. The average desired working age among the elderly population was 73 years.

66.7% of elderly experienced employment in the past year, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from the previous year. Among them, 84.8% had employment experience only once.

The average length of service at the longest-held job for those aged 55-64 was 15 years and 7.9 months, an increase of 3.2 months from the previous year. By gender, men (19 years and 1.5 months) had a longer average length of service than women (12 years and 2 months).

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