Issue Soft-landing the baby boomers' exit and re-employing older workers in Korea

Summary

KEIS argues that ageing reduces the labour force, lowers productivity and raises fiscal burdens, so Korea must prepare for the full retirement of the baby-boom generation that long drove production, consumption and employment. Korean baby boomers tend to stay in the labour market after reaching old age, and higher poverty goes with higher employment among older people, making income a key factor in their work. The report therefore calls for more job-search support, public-private partnerships and efforts to counter negative perceptions so that older people can re-enter the labour market. Because productivity tends to decline with age, it also calls for continuing retraining, industrial restructuring based on age-friendly sectors and flexible arrangements such as short-hours work. Measures such as extending the retirement age, job redesign and flexible work forms are presented as ways to ease labour shortages through older workers.