Taiwan’s elderly workforce has continued to expand since the country entered “super-aged society” status last year, reflecting a growing desire among elderly people to work and highlighting labor shortages that need to be filled.
Trends documented by official government statistics and an online job platform’s surveys underline the rising tide of older workers in Taiwan’s economy.
The number of employed people aged 65 or older surpassed 500,000 for the first time in March, according to a monthly Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) report released late last month.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
The number of employed elderly people rose to 460,000 last year from 250,000 in 2015, an increase of 84 percent over that period, and more than 500,000 seniors were employed in March, a labor participation rate of 10.8 percent, DGBAS data showed.
The employment figures are being driven in part by demographic trends.
The number of those aged 65 or above in Taiwan reached 4.67 million last year, 20.06 percent of the population, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
Societies in which elderly people account for more than 20 percent of the population are classified as “super-aged,” according to the WHO.
At the same time, employment among people aged 25 to 44 fell to 5.67 million last year from 5.99 million in 2015, reflecting the combined impact of an aging population and declining birthrates.
A longer healthy life expectancy and persistent labor shortages have encouraged more elderly people to remain in or return to the workforce, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said.
“Employers are also reporting labor shortages. If they can get older people to keep working, it would be helpful to businesses,” she said.
A separate white paper released by online job platform 104 Job Bank in November last year found that applications from middle-aged and older job seekers had risen 34.4 percent in three years, reaching an average of 82,000 applications per month last year.
More than 80 percent of such workers hoped to continue working after age 60 due to concerns over retirement savings and rising living costs, the report said.
Many companies still hold misconceptions about hiring older workers, including concerns over higher salary costs or fears that younger applicants might be discouraged, 104 Job Bank manager Chan Wan-jung (詹宛榕) said.
Survey results showed that 93.7 percent of workers younger than 40 held neutral or positive views toward age-friendly workplaces, with some saying it would make them more willing to apply to such companies, Chan said.
People aged 45 to 64 are expected to account for more than half of Taiwan’s population by 2037, further reshaping the labor market, according to the National Development Council’s projections.
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