The new middle-aged need better support

The concept of the new middle age has become familiar in Korea. It refers to those in their 50s and 60s who have quit their primary career to look for new jobs.

The concept of the new middle age has become familiar in Korea. It refers to those in their 50s and 60s who have quit their primary career to look for new jobs. They differ from older adults who have retired from economic activities. The baby boomers born from 1955 to 1963 also could fall into the category.

Korean midlife can be hard. Most Korean salary-earners — whether they want or not — quit work in their early 50s. They must look for new careers since they have not saved up much while life expectancy has lengthened. Since they can claim their national pension in their early 60s, they must somehow muddle through for at least 10 years.

The national pension does not provide enough comfort. Those who kept up their contribution for more than 20 years get 1,030,000 won ($795) per month on average this year. The national average, however, is only 618,000 won, which hardly covers expenses after retirement. According to a National Pension Service survey, a couple needs 2.77 million won to sustain an ordinary living. A single would need 1,773,000 won. The middle-aged also cannot rely on savings. According to Statistics Korea, the average total assets of those in their 50s amount to 567,410,000 won, of which 100,740,000 won is debt. An apartment is often their sole asset, which comes with the mortgage they still have to pay.

Retirement in the 50s, therefore, cannot be pretty. Newly employed among 50s and 60s totaled 10,897,000, taking up 69.2 percent of the so-called new middle-aged. Worse, they are moving down in the work hierarchy. According to the Korea Employment Information Service, simple low-skilled work took up 26.3 percent of the new midlife job, sharply higher than the ratio of 11.5 percent for the 20s and 8.4 percent for the 30s. The share of the new middle-aged settling for lower-paying, low-skill work after quitting their prior job took up 30.9 percent. Those who retire from their long-time workplace are moving down, not up. Their new jobs are vulnerable as AIs and robots are replacing humans to perform simple, low-skill tasks.

The downgrading of midlife workers or their inactivity while wages and welfare benefits are small can be not just harsh on the individuals but also is a major loss to society. It is a waste to idle the expertise built through decades of career. Social welfare costs will increase if midlife financial status becomes unstable. The nation must seriously deliberate on utilizing the new middle-aged assets. For better use of their capabilities, we can benchmark Japan's lifelong active society program aimed at promoting the productivity of companies and society to fight labor shortage in the aged society. Given the discontent with the government's employment service by the middle aged, the support system also must be radically upgraded.