80% of Small and Medium Enterprises Willing to Hire 50s and 70s Generation as Regular Employees

AllWork, a Job and Startup Portal for Middle-Aged and Older Adults, Surveys 500 SMEs Nationwide
Preference for IT-Skilled Personnel with Basic Computer Use and Big Data Analysis Skills

Among 10 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) experiencing severe labor shortages, 8 expressed willingness to hire employees in their 50s and 70s as regular workers. This is the result of a survey conducted by Allwork, a specialized portal for middle-aged and senior employment and entrepreneurship (CEO Kim Bong-gap), over two weeks starting from the 1st, targeting 500 SMEs nationwide and 1,000 individual members.

According to Allwork, 75.7% of these companies responded that they are willing to recruit middle-aged and senior workers regardless of age if they have completed training in basic computer skills (MS Word, Excel, PPT, etc.), big data analysis, and online marketing (Google, Facebook, Naver, Kakao, etc.). The main reason was that 65% believed these workers could utilize their experience and have a low turnover rate. This was followed by 26% citing "responsible and diligent," and 8% saying "helpful to the organization." The preferred age group was overwhelmingly 50 to 55 years old at 80.2%, while 17.1% of companies selected 61 to 65 years old. Regarding desired salary, 70.3% preferred between 40 million and 45 million KRW. Meanwhile, 93% of individual members were found to want reemployment after about four months of training. The desired salary range for them was 35 million to 55 million KRW for 90%.

Members of the MZ generation in their late 20s to 30s who graduated from universities in Seoul and the metropolitan area tend to avoid employment in manufacturing SMEs with fewer than 50 employees in the metropolitan area or fewer than 200 employees in non-metropolitan areas. SMEs continue to face a vicious cycle of failing to secure talented personnel. According to a survey by the Korea Economic Association’s Middle-aged Tomorrow Center, even when people in their 50s to 70s succeed in reemployment, their wages amount to only 62.7% of their previous job, and the rate of regular employment decreases, reflecting the reality of declining "job quality."

To break this vicious cycle, a solution emerging is to provide retired high-level middle-aged and senior workers with IT education needed by SMEs and help them find reemployment in related companies. In Japan, where aging is a serious issue, thanks to education and support from the government, public institutions, and companies, the employment rate of the elderly aged 60 to 64 surged from 57.7% in 2012 to 73.0% in 2022, and for those aged 65 to 69, it rose from 37.1% to 50.8% during the same period.

Allwork plans to offer an "IT job and technical training" program (4 to 6 months course) for individual members and retired middle-aged workers for job change and reemployment starting early next year. CEO Kim Bong-gap emphasized, "Currently, those born in 1958, the Year of the Dog, generally work until age 65, and it is urgent to establish a systematic education system for them," adding, "Education and employment of the workforce needed by SMEs would be most effective if directly conducted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small and Medium Business Corporation."

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