"Retirement Is a Luxury"... Number of Employed People Aged 70 or Older Tops 2 Million for the First Time

[Financial News] More than 2 million people aged 70 or older were employed last year for the first time.
According to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) of the National Data Office on the 10th, the number of employed people aged 70 or older stood at 2.162 million last year, up 9.2% from a year earlier. It was the first time the figure had exceeded 2 million since the National Data Office began publishing related statistics in 2018.
The number of employed people aged 70 or older has continued to rise every year.
It rose from 1.219 million in 2018 to 1.566 million in 2021, and then increased by 7.1% to 9.7% annually from 2022 to 2024, surpassing the 2 million mark.
Compared with 2018, when the statistics were first compiled, the number of employed people aged 70 or older last year was 1.8 times higher. Their share of total employment also rose by 3.0 percentage points, from 4.5% to 7.5%, over the same period.
Both men and women showed a clear upward trend.
The number of employed men aged 70 or older first topped 1 million in 2024, at 1.016 million, and then rose 9.6% to 1.113 million last year. Employed women in the same age group also increased 8.7% to 1.049 million, surpassing 1 million for the first time last year.
The increase in employment among people aged 70 or older is seen as the result of a growing elderly population and expanded senior jobs. In fact, the population aged 70 or older has risen every year since 2018, when it stood at 5.025 million, and reached 6.822 million last year.
Given the population structure, the number of employed people aged 70 or older is expected to remain above 2 million for the foreseeable future.
However, some observers say the rise in employment among people in their 70s and older also reflects the problem of elderly poverty.
According to Social Trends in Korea 2025, published in December last year by the National Statistical Research Institute of the National Data Office, the income poverty rate among Koreans aged 66 and older was 39.7%. That is the highest among OECD member countries and more than twice the OECD average of 14.8%.
The increase in employment among older adults is being interpreted as a sign that many people cannot stop working even after retirement age because they need to make a living.
Meanwhile, the number of employed people aged 60 or older also rose 5.3% to 6.834 million last year. In contrast, employment among people in their 50s fell 0.4% to 6.679 million.
In other words, the number of employed people aged 60 or older exceeded that of people in their 50s by 155,000. It was the first time since the National Data Office began compiling employment figures by age in 1963 that the 60-and-older group has outnumbered the 50s group.
newssu@fnnews.com Kim Soo-yeon Reporter