The number of those in their 60s who got hired in the second quarter of this year exceeded those in their 20s for the first time in two years, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

As life expectancy increases and employees seek to push back retirement as companies adopt a wage peak system, a growing number of elders are looking to either remain in the workforce as long as they can or try to reenter the labor market to further prepare for their postretirement.


The number of those employed in their 60s stood at 3.98 million in the second quarter, up from 3.44 million in the first quarter, while that of those in their 20s only reached 3.78 million. In the second quarter of 2014, the number of those employed in their 60s outnumbered that of those in their 20s at 3.64 million to 3.61 million.

The state-run statistics bureau also noted that Korea’s changing demographics, with the population getting older, were attributable to an increase in 60-something employment.

The 60-something population in Korea reached 9.8 million in the second quarter of 2016, up 470,000 from the same period a year ago. The 20-something population only increased about 52,000 at 6.4 million in the same period.

Amid low growth forecast and a negative outlook for the job market beset by a growing number of companies reluctant to hire extra workforce, Korea’s youth unemployment reached a monthly record high of 10.3 percent in June.

Korea’s youth unemployment in June rose 0.1 percentage from the same period last year, and increased 0.6 percentage from May this year. This was the highest since 1999 during the Asian financial crisis when youth unemployment was 11.3 percent, according to Statistics Korea.

“Rapid population ageing and the rising number of single elderly persons will exacerbate poverty,” the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report.

“Reforms in labor markets contribute not only to raising labor force participation and employment but also productivity.”

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)