1 in 5 working Koreans are over 55: data

An older adult browses the employment information board at a recruitment event for older adults in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, July 21. Yonhap

Government data released Sunday showed that about one-fifth of workers at companies with 300 or more full-time employees in Korea are aged 55 or older, reflecting the nation's declining birthrate and aging population.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor data on older adult employment, their number totaled over 809,000 out of 4.31 million employees at 3,948 workplaces with 300 or more employees, accounting for some 18.8 percent.

Among workplaces with 500 to 999 employees, about one quarter, or 24.8 percent of workers were aged over 55, while for bigger companies with over 1,000 workers, the figure stood at 16.11 percent.

In 2013, the employment rate of those aged 55 or older at workplaces with 300 or more employees was 10.1 percent. The figure went up to 11.5 percent in 2015, 13.2 percent in 2017, 15.4 percent in 2019 and 17.2 percent in 2021 until it nearly doubled to 18.8 percent in 2023.

Although the number of older employees is naturally increasing due to Korea's aging population, there are still companies that cannot keep the standard employment rate for older adults.

Under the Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Elderly Employment Promotion, companies with over 300 employees should “endeavor to provide the aged with employment opportunities suited to their abilities.”

The standard ratio for employment of the aged prescribed by the law is 2 percent for companies in manufacturing businesses, 6 percent for those in transportation, real-estate or rental businesses and 3 percent for other industries.

As of the end of last year, 628 out of 3,948 workplaces with 300 or more employees failed to meet the standard senior employment rate.

In 2006 alone, half of all such workplaces fell short of the standard senior employment rate, but the number of those who fell behind the standard declined rapidly as the overall senior employment rate also increased.

However, in industries with a relatively larger number of young workers, such as wholesale and retail, and information and communication businesses, the rate of workplaces that failed to meet the standard older adult employment rate stood at 56.3 percent and 55.9 percent, respectively.