Elderly people gathering at Tapgol Park in central Seoul to spend their free time. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Almost half of South Korean senior citizens receiving pensions are reluctant to stop working, a report said Wednesday.
The Federation of Korean Industries analyzed the five-year data provided by Statistics Korea, which showed that as of May of this year, there were more than 3.7 million seniors in the country between 55 and 79 years of age who were receiving a pension and working at the same time, up by 46.7 percent from 2017.
They account for 49.7 percent of all South Korean seniors receiving pensions, rising by 5.9 percentage points from 2017 (43.8 percent).
The average amount of pension, combining both public and private pensions, stood at 1.38 million won (US$967) per two people each month, falling short of the minimum amount needed to sustain a basic livelihood (2.16 million won per month) as estimated by Statistics Korea.
At 68.5 percent, more than two-thirds of seniors between 55 and 79 years of age wished to continue working in the future, 57.1 percent of whom said they needed to work to ‘sustain their livelihood’.
Seniors who cannot get a job after retirement are opting to start up their own businesses to sustain their livelihood.
As of 2021, there were more than 5.5 million self-employed workers over 15 years of age. While 3.2 percent lower than 2017, the number of self-employed workers over 60 years of age jumped to 1.93 million people, up by 21.4 percent.
Last year, 87.2 percent of all self-employed workers over 60 years of age had no hired employees. The number of ‘work-alone’ seniors stood at 1.69 million people, up 22.9 percent from 2021.
As of 2019, 53.6 percent of all small businesses whose monthly operating profit fell short of the minimum wage were run by seniors over 60 years of age.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
