In a reflection of the demographic change in the country, its workforce is rapidly aging, raising the need to enhance labor productivity, especially in the service sector.

According to a recent report released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the average age of Korea’s waged workers increased from 36.5 in 2001 to 39.6 last year. It is projected to exceed 40 this year.

Over the cited period, the number of workers aged 15-29 declined by 15.6 percent to 3.6 million, while the figures for those in their 40s and aged 50 or above jumped by more than 50 percent and doubled to 4.6 million and 4.3 million, respectively.

The increase in the elderly workforce is in line with the rapid aging of the country’s population. Korea, which saw the proportion of people aged 65 or older exceed 7 percent in 2000, is expected to become an aged society with the ratio surpassing 14 percent by 2018. The time span of 18 years is far speedier than 24 years for Japan, 46 years for Britain and 72 years for the U.S.

According to the report, the number of salaried workers with college diplomas was up 88 percent from 2.87 million to 5.4 million over the decade until 2011. The number of workers with middle school or lower grade education slipped by more than 61 percent to 1.17 million over the same period. With the total workforce climbing from 12.6 million to 17.4 million, the proportion of women workers showed a slight increase from 41.1 percent to 42.7 percent.

The average monthly work hours for Korean employees dropped from 204.9 hours in 2001 to 189.3 hours last year, still the second longest behind Turkey among 30 surveyed members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But their productivity remained at a low level, ranking 23rd. The service sector’s productivity decreased about 10 percent over three years from 2008.

The incoming administration should work out measures to boost the productivity of individual workers to cope with the rapid aging of the labor force. Subsidies or tax incentives may be offered to companies for investing in programs to increase the work efficiency of their employees.

Efforts are needed to create more jobs for both elderly and young people to avoid deepening a generational conflict over work opportunities. Figures from Statistics Korea showed about 353,000 jobs were added to the labor market in November, down from 396,000 in the previous month.