Workers in 60s outnumber those in 20s in manufacturing

The number of elderly workers in South Korea’s manufacturing industry hovered around the 600,000-mark in 2023, surpassing that of younger workers for the first time, while employment among those in their 20s increased significantly in the accommodation and food service industries.

According to data released by Statistics Korea on Sunday, the number of workers aged 60 or older in the country’s manufacturing industry was 599,000 in 2023, up 51,000 from a year ago. In contrast, the number of workers in their 20s or younger was 555,000, down 33,000 from a year ago and 44,000 fewer than those aged 60 or older. This is the first time since the country’s industrial classification was revised in 2014 that workers aged 60 or older outnumbered their coworkers in their teens and 20s in the manufacturing industry.

The underlying cause is the rapidly aging population, which has led to a surge in the number of older workers, with the number of workers aged 60 or older rising by 368,000 from 231,000 in 2014 to 590,000 in 2023 and their share of the total workforce growing from 5.2 percent in 2014 to 13.4 percent last year. In manufacturing, this trend is also due to the difficulty in recruiting new employees as young people shun manufacturing jobs.

Focusing solely on those in their 20s, there was a decrease in manufacturing jobs but an increase in accommodation and food service jobs, and the number of workers in their 20s in the manufacturing industry was 545,000 in 2023, down by 27,000 from the previous year. But the number of those in their 20s in accommodation and food services increased by 37,000 to 574,000, surpassing manufacturing for the first time since 2014. The number of those in their 20s in the accommodation and food service industries first exceeded 500,000 in 2019, when it hit 528,000.

The increasing number of young people in the accommodation and food service industries seems to be a result of the overall growth in the service industry market. The decrease in youth employment in manufacturing is also attributed to more young people attending college, leading to a decrease in high school graduates in their early 20s entering the workforce.

There are also concerns that young people are avoiding small and medium-sized enterprises in manufacturing due to the industry’s downturn. “As Korean manufacturing’s export competitiveness weakens, the situation for SMEs in manufacturing is even more challenging, leading to a trend among young people to avoid these companies due to their low wages and employment instability,” Kim Jung-sik, a professor of economics at Yonsei University, explained.