Need a job? Put on some years.

Jobs for people over the age of 59 increased by 380,000 last year, half the total jobs created during the year.

Older people line up at a job fair in Suwon last month. [YONHAP]

Jobs for people over the age of 59 increased by 380,000 last year, half the total jobs created during the year.

Over the same period. only 20,000 jobs were added for 20-somethings.

According to data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, there were 24.72 million jobs last year, an increase of 710,000 or 2.9 percent over 2019. Some 53.5 percent were for people 60 or older. Most were government jobs.

The number of jobs is different from the number of employed people, according to the statistics agency, as one person can have multiple jobs.

It was the first time 380,000 jobs were created for the older age group in a single year. In 2019, 340,000 were created for that group, the previous record.

Jobs for people in their 50s increased by 180,000 or 3.2 percent in 2020.

Only 60,000 jobs were added for the people in their 30s and 20,000 for those in their 20s.

Seniors also beat young people in terms of the total number of jobs. Last year, there were 3.95 million jobs for people above the age of 59 and 3.44 million jobs for people in their 20s.

Korea's society is aging, but even so, analysts said it is still abnormal that jobs for old people exceed those open to young jobseekers.

"Increased hiring in the public sector means the government needs to spend more of the taxpayers' money," said Kang Sung-jin, a professor of economics at Korea University. "[The government] needs to create a sustainable environment for more jobs to be created from the private sector by invigorating the economy, but right now it is going in the opposite direction."

Last year, the greatest number of jobs was created in the healthcare and social welfare sectors, which is dominated by public sector jobs. Some 130,000 jobs were created in that sector, followed by 120,000 jobs in the public administration sector.

BY JEONG JIN-HO, KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]