Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - When Nepalese workers and younger Koreans left Hwang Kwang-factory jo's in Seoul earlier this year, ...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - When Nepalese workers and younger Koreans left Hwang Kwang-factory jo's in Seoul earlier this year, there weren't enough people to do the work, so he hired a 61-year-old to help out.
Even though the job, which involves handling heavy alloy bars, isn't great for people close to retirement, the pandemic has made it harder for South Korean companies to find workers from other countries. This has forced companies to cast a wider net.
This problem is made worse by the fact that younger Koreans don't want to work in blue-collar jobs.
"It's very hard to fill open positions. I've never gotten a resume from someone in their 20s," said Hwang, CEO of Iljin Enterprise, an aluminum molding plant that usually employs about 35 people. "We were able to find Mr. Oh in April, after the two Nepalese had to leave the country because of visa problems."
In South Korea, where unemployment hit a near-record low of 2.9% in July, the competition for workers has led to a rise in the number of older people working. In fact, 58% of the job gains have been driven by people aged 60 and up.
Even so, there aren't enough workers in the industrial and farming sectors of Asia's fourth-largest economy. This is putting more pressure on prices when inflation is already at its highest level in 24 years.
In South Korea, which is the oldest country in the world, 33.1% of people between the ages of 70 and 74 are still working. This is more than double the OECD average of 15.2% for this age group.
Since the beginning of 2020, data from the Central Bank shows that more than 230,000 people aged 60 or older have found work in factories and construction sites, while younger people have been leaving these fields.
South Korea has about 848,000 foreign workers, which is a small number compared to other industrialized countries. However, these workers are very important to the factory sector.
Since the beginning of 2020, the number of new foreign workers coming into the country each month is about 35% of what it was in 2019, before the pandemic.
Japan has a similar problem. Strict pandemic controls keep migrant workers out, so the country has to rely even more on the elderly to fill job openings.
Hwang at Iljin Enterprise says that his factory is better suited for younger foreign and local workers because of the physical demands of the work, but he doesn't have much of a choice.
"It would be my last choice if I couldn't find younger people or foreign workers, but I might need to hire more older people," said Hwang, who recently gave all his staff a raise on top of the 700,000 won monthly bonuses he gave his foreign staff.
The government said last week that it plans to make it easier for foreign workers to get visas and lessen the amount of paperwork they have to go through to help fill vacancies.
Kim Ji-hwang is a land developer in Danyang, which is two and a half hours south of Seoul. He hired Park Jang-young, who is 64 years old, because he didn't have enough people to work for him.
Park's new job is to clean trucks and other equipment at a construction site. He makes about 3.7 million won ($2,844.18) a month, which is a lot more than he made at his old job in a parking lot.
"I know my boss likes to hire younger people, but young people go to Seoul after they graduate. Even foreign workers are picky; they have a good network and community to share information about pay and working conditions," Park said. "I'll keep this job until I get fired, because I think the pay is good for my age."
