As over half of Korean senior citizens expressed a desire to work, nearly 1 in 5 seniors are actively engaged in job seeking, reports showed Monday.

According to a report from Korea Employment Information Service, which analyzed Statistics Korea’s data, among individuals aged between 65 and 79, 55.7 percent expressed a desire to continue working. That is an increase of 0.9 percentage point from a year ago and 12.1 percentage points from a decade prior.

Of the older individuals aspiring for employment, 65.4 percent were men while 47.4 percent were women.

The majority of them, constituting 52.2 percent, cited financial reasons as the primary motivation for the need to work, and seniors with lower educational levels were more inclined to work for financial reasons. Some 38 percent of the aged expressed a desire for job positions for the joy of labor itself.

Close to 19 percent of seniors had searched for a job over the past year. The data indicated that individuals with lower levels of education were more likely to have been searching for employment.

An official from the employment agency emphasized the importance of promoting financial independence among seniors by offering employment opportunities to those with lower levels of education, who are more likely to rely on national support programs.