Half of those aged 65 and over "want to keep working"... 19% have job-seeking experience

Employment Information Service, Statistics Korea Data Analysis
'Continuous Employment' Preference Rate Up 12%P in 10 Years

More than half of elderly people aged 65 to 79 want to continue working, and one in five have had job-seeking experience in the past year.

According to the Employment Trend Brief "Economic Activity and Retirement Preparation of the Elderly Population" by the Korea Employment Information Service on the 3rd, the supplementary survey on the elderly population conducted in May by the Statistics Korea's Economically Active Population Survey showed that 55.7% of those aged 65 to 79 wished to "continue working."

Statistics Korea releases supplementary survey results for the elderly population based on ages 55 to 79. Senior Researcher Kang Min-jung of the Employment Information Service reanalyzed this data using the elderly age standard of 65 and older and included it in this report. The proportion of those aged 65 to 79 who want to continue working increased by 0.9 percentage points from the survey in May last year (54.8%). Compared to 10 years ago in 2013 (43.6%), it rose by 12.1 percentage points. By gender, men (65.4%) were more likely to want to continue working than women (47.3%), and the higher the education level, the more respondents wanted to keep working.

Job seekers participating in the '2023 Gangnam-gu Job Fair' held on October 13 at the Seoul Gangnam Employment and Startup Hub Center are looking at the recruitment bulletin board. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Reason for Continuing to Work: 'Because Money is Needed' 52.2%

The reason for wanting to continue working was "to supplement living expenses / because money is needed," accounting for 52.2%, more than half. Next, 38.0% responded that they wanted to work "as long as health permits / because of the joy of working." Elderly people working for economic reasons tended to have lower education levels.

The proportion of those aged 65 to 79 who actually had job-seeking experience in the past year was 18.6% as of last May. This is slightly lower than last year (19.2%) but significantly higher than 10 years ago (11.7%). By gender, 18.9% of men and 18.4% of women had job-seeking experience, and the lower the education level, the higher the job-seeking experience rate.

Although the number of elderly people wanting to continue working is increasing and the economic activity participation rate of the elderly is rising, the job environment for the elderly appears to be relatively poor. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's "2022 Survey on Working Conditions by Employment Type," the total monthly working hours of non-regular workers aged 60 and over was 114.6 hours, more than the total non-regular workers (111.7 hours). However, the total hourly wage was 16,575 won, less than the overall non-regular workers (17,233 won).

One in Three People Aged 65 and Over Works

According to the "2023 Elderly Statistics" analyzed by Statistics Korea last September, the employment rate of those aged 65 and over in Korea was 36.2% last year, the highest among major OECD countries. Among the total 9,027,000 elderly people aged 65 and over, well beyond the retirement age (60 years), more than one-third, 3,265,000, remain in the labor market. The employment rate of those aged 65 and over increased by 6.1 percentage points compared to 10 years ago (2012). However, most of their jobs are public jobs supplied by the government, and many general jobs are simple labor positions.

Regarding this, Researcher Kang of the Employment Information Service said, "It is necessary to increase economic independence by providing income compensation effects through job provision for low-education elderly and late elderly, who are likely to become dependents." She suggested expanding the age range of participants in the social contribution activities for the new middle-aged, maintaining an appropriate level of public interest jobs, and other measures as solutions.

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