Work Force Aging Rapidly Amid Slump
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Korea's labor force has been aging rapidly over the past year in the aftermath of the worldwide economic slump, with many businesses becoming reluctant to hire new employees, who are mostly university graduates in their 20s.
On the other hand, the number of workers in their 50s and 60s increased sharply as they have picked up the low-paying and manual jobs avoided by 20- and 30-somethings to cope with increasing financial hardship.
Additionally, as part of government efforts to help the elderly ride out the current economic difficulty, a large number of senior citizens have been added to the temporary state payroll this year, providing various public services in return for minimum wage.
Analysts say that employment conditions for new graduates will likely remain in a slump for the foreseeable future as companies are still unwilling to make new investment and expand their workforce amid the continuing uncertain economic outlook.
They say that unless the corporate sector begins hiring thousands of university graduates again, the nation's labor force will continue to age.
Statistics Korea said Friday that the number of employed people in their 20s fell by 142,000 to 3.71 million in October from a year earlier, the lowest figure since February 1984.
The number fell below 3.8 million in December last year in the wake of the international financial crisis and continued to decline.
But from April through July this year, the number of 20-something workers bounced back to over 3.8 million on the back of a ``job sharing'' program introduced by many businesses and a massive internship program offered by the government.
But from August, the number began heading downward again on growing corporate concerns over the global economic outlook, despite the nation's stronger-than-expected performance in the second and third quarters.
Even though workers in their 20s have continued to dwindle over the past few months, Korea has churned out new jobs for three straight months from August through October, bolstered mainly by the government's temporary hiring of elderly workers in various public sectors.
The statistical office said the overall number of people employed nationwide stood at 23.8 million in October, up 10,000 from a year earlier.
The number of workers in their 50s increased by 220,000 to 4.66 million last month from the previous year, substantially larger than 3.71 million employees in their 20s.
The number of working 60-somethings rose to an all-time high of 2.92 million, up 122,000 over the one-year period.