"Due to Insufficient Retirement Funds"... Employment Rate for Those Aged 65 and Over at 36%

Korea Employment Information Service Report... 6%P Increase Over 10 Years
370,000 Employed Aged 80+... Monthly Income 230,000 Won

The number of elderly people continuing to work after the age of 65 due to insufficient retirement funds has increased.

According to the report "Employment Trends, Causes, and Implications of Elderly People Aged 65 and Over" by the Korea Employment Information Service, a public institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the employment rate of those aged 65 and over was 36.2% last year. This marks an increase of 6.1 percentage points from 30.1% in 2012 over ten years, with the employment rate for those over 65 reaching record highs every year since 2018.

Last year, the number of employed people aged 65 and over was 3,365,000, showing an average annual increase of 9.0% over the past five years (2018?2022). Compared to the overall employment growth rate of 0.9% annually during the same period, the increase in elderly employment is ten times higher. In particular, the number of employed people aged 80 and over rose from 204,000 to 376,000 last year, an average annual increase of 16.5%, showing an even larger growth.

A job seeker is looking at a job information bulletin board.
Photo by Yonhap News

Researcher Park Jin-hee, who authored the report, stated, "The increase in economic activity participation among the elderly is due to more healthy seniors, but retirement income is insufficient," adding, "Public pension benefits are low, so they supplement their living expenses."

In a survey conducted last year, 51.7% of those aged 65 to 79 cited "to supplement living expenses / because money is needed" as their reason for participating in the labor market, accounting for the majority. Additionally, 8.0% said "want to work as long as health permits / for the joy of working," and 40.3% gave other reasons.

The average monthly wage of the elderly showed a significant decrease as age increased. The average monthly wages by age group were 1.03 million KRW for ages 65?69, 700,000 KRW for 70?74, 370,000 KRW for 75?79, and 230,000 KRW for those aged 80 and above.

When asked about the relevance of their current job to their main past career, 38.0% of those aged 65?79 responded "very relevant," 12.9% "somewhat relevant," 14.2% "not very relevant," and 34.9% "not relevant at all."

Last year, the industry distribution of wage workers aged 65 and over was 29.3% in health and social welfare services, 14.1% in business facility management services, 11.3% in wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and accommodation and food services, and 9.6% in public administration, defense, and social security administration. Regarding employment types of those aged 65 and over by gender last year, males were 49.5% wage workers (23.2% regular, 20.4% temporary, 5.9% daily) and 50.5% non-wage workers (4.8% employers, 44.2% self-employed, 1.5% unpaid family workers). Females were 63.5% wage workers (13.8% regular, 45.0% temporary, 4.7% daily) and 36.5% non-wage workers (2.5% employers, 18.2% self-employed, 15.9% unpaid family workers).

Researcher Park suggested, "As the aging of the baby boomer generation born between 1955 and 1963 intensifies, the number of elderly employed will increase further," and added, "Employment policies are needed to enable elderly people to obtain desired jobs by utilizing the experience they accumulated in their main past careers."

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