More than 1 in 3 Korean workers now 55 or older

More than one in three employed people in Korea are now age 55 or older, as the number of working older adults surpassed 10 million for the first time, according to government data released Wednesday.

The number of employed people aged 55 to 79 reached 10.125 million as of May, up 345,000 from a year earlier, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said in its "2026 May Economically Active Population Survey: Supplementary Survey on Older Workers" (translated). That figure has grown 1.5-fold over the past decade, from 6.715 million in 2016, and now accounts for 34.8 percent of all employed people age 15 and older. 

Korea's older adult population reached 17.017 million, up 570,000 from a year earlier, making up 37.0 percent of the country's population age 15 and older, which totaled 45.98 million. The employment rate among older adults held steady at 59.5 percent from the previous year. Within that group, the employment rate for those aged 55 to 64 rose 0.4 percentage points to 71.5 percent, while the rate for those aged 65 to 79 climbed 0.6 percentage points to 47.8 percent.

Among older adults who have already left their longest-held job, the average age at retirement was 53 — 55.3 for men and 51.1 for women. By age group, those in their 50s made up the largest share of retirees at 35.8 percent, followed by those in their 60s at 31.4 percent and those in their 40s at 15.0 percent.

The most common reasons cited for leaving their longest-held job were business struggles, suspended operations or closures with 24.9 percent, declining health with 22.1 percent and family caregiving with 15.2 percent. Men were more likely to cite business struggles or mandatory retirement, while women were more likely to point to family caregiving or health issues.

A total of 30.5 percent of older adults are still working at their longest-held job, up 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Their average current age was 62.6, unchanged from the previous year. By industry, workers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries had the highest average age at 68.2, while those in mining and manufacturing had the lowest at 61.2.

The desire to keep working remains widespread: 93.4 percent of currently employed older adults said they want to continue working, along with 35.4 percent of those without a job but with past work experience, and 7.1 percent of those who have never worked. The most common reason cited for wanting to keep working was to help cover living expenses, at 53.4 percent, followed by the enjoyment of working at 36.7 percent, boredom at 4.3 percent, feeling needed by society at 3.2 percent, and maintaining health at 2.3 percent. Compared to the previous year, the share citing living expenses fell 1.0 percentage point, while the share citing enjoyment of work rose 0.6 percentage points.

Those who want to keep working said they hope to do so until an average age of 73.6 — up 0.2 years from the same month last year and the highest level since 2011. By age group, the age at which respondents desired to stop working ranged from 69.7 among those in their late 50s to 71.9 for those in their early 60s, 75.0 for those in their late 60s, 78.6 for those in their early 70s and 82.3 for those in their late 70s. Both men — at 24.9 percent — and women — at 37.5 percent — most commonly cited workload and hours as their top consideration in choosing a job. On desired wages, 34.9 percent of men wanted 3 million won ($2,100) or more per month, the largest share among men, while 21.0 percent of women wanted between 1 million and 1.5 million won, the largest share among women.

Separately, nearly nine million seniors, or 52.7 percent of the total, received a pension over the past year — up 467,000 people and 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier. Their average monthly pension payment was 880,000 won, up 2.1 percent from the same month last year — 1.13 million won for men and 610,000 won for women. By payment range, the largest share, 37.7 percent, received between 250,000 and 500,000 won per month, followed by 33.2 percent who received between 500,000 and 1 million won.

BY CHO MUN-GYU [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]