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What “Over 10 Million” Actually Counts
South Korea’s older workforce has surpassed 10 million for the first time. According to the “2026 Supplementary Survey on the Older Population” released by the National Data Agency on August 5, based on the May Economically Active Population Survey, 10,125,000 people aged 55 to 79 were employed — up 345,000 from a year earlier. In this survey, “older population” doesn’t mean 65 and up only; it spans ages 55 through 79.
The same age group’s total population was 17,017,000, or 37.0% of the population aged 15 and older. The employment rate for this group held at 59.5%, unchanged from a year earlier. The number of employed older workers rose sharply while the employment rate didn’t move, because the underlying population itself grew at the same time. The 10-million milestone is better read as the combined result of a shifting population structure and employment, not simply as evidence of an improving job market.
Most of the Growth Came From Age 65 and Up
Of the overall increase of 345,000 older workers, 326,000 came from the 65-to-79 age bracket alone. Employment in that bracket reached 4,118,000, with an employment rate of 47.8%. The 55-to-64 group, by comparison, added just 20,000 workers, reaching 6,007,000 employed. The growth in older employment wasn’t spread evenly across pre- and post-retirement ages — it concentrated in the 65-and-up group.
Occupational makeup offers a clue about the quality of that labor. Among older workers, 2,261,000 — 22.3% — held simple labor jobs, 8.5 percentage points higher than the 13.8% share simple labor makes up across all workers. By industry, health and social welfare services employed the most, at 1,498,000. A rising employment count and a rise in stable, skill-based jobs are not the same story.
The 20-Year Gap Between Age 53 and Age 73.6
Among older people with work experience, the average age at which they left their longest-held job was 53.0. That figure shouldn’t be read as an average retirement age, though. The survey doesn’t ask when someone left the labor market entirely — it asks when they left the single job they held longest. It leaves open the possibility that they moved on to another company, self-employment, or temporary or part-time work afterward.
Among the older population, 11,782,000 people — 69.2% of the total — said they want to keep working. The average age they hope to work until is 73.6. That leaves roughly a 20-year gap between leaving a primary career job and the age someone hopes to stop working altogether. In American terms, there’s effectively one long “second labor market” sitting between a formal career and formal retirement.
Half Say They Want to Work Because They Need the Money
Among those who want to keep working, “help with living expenses” was the top reason at 53.4%. “Enjoyment of work” came in at 36.7%. That makes it hard to frame older workers’ continued employment purely as healthy social participation. Just 52.7% of older people received a pension, at an average of 880,000 won a month. The average for men was 1.13 million won; for women, 610,000 won — a wide gender gap.
Among desired job conditions, “workload and hours” ranked highest at 30.8%, ahead of wage level at 20.3% and job security at 16.3%. That doesn’t mean older workers uniformly want long hours. Alongside the need for income, there’s a parallel demand to adjust working hours around health and caregiving responsibilities. Policy attention may need to shift from simply the number of available jobs to the structure of hours and sustainability.
A Different Question From the Working-Age Population Debate
These figures should be kept separate from population projections that track what share of the population falls within the working-age bracket in a super-aged society. “Working-age population” typically applies an age cutoff of 15 to 64. This supplementary survey, by contrast, asked individuals aged 55 to 79 about their actual employment status, their longest-held past job, and their intentions to keep working. It’s a related question about aging, but the denominator and the questions asked are different.
What to watch going forward isn’t just whether the 10-million mark holds. Wages, working hours, employment insurance enrollment, and how continuity with a primary career connects to these later jobs at 65 and up all need to be tracked and disclosed. Whether wanting to work until 73.6 reflects choice or economic pressure also needs ongoing scrutiny. The employment count is only a starting point — the real question is what kind of work fills the 20 years after age 53.
Source: National Data Agency, “Results of the May 2026 Economically Active Population Survey Supplementary Survey on the Older Population,” August 5, 2026.
