[Editorial] Collapse of 70% Working-Age Population: Employment and Immigration Policy Reforms Can No Longer Be Delayed

The proportion of the working-age population in South Korea has dropped below 70%. According to the 2025 Population and Housing Census by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, those aged 15–64 now account for only 69.2% of the total population, while those aged 65 and over make up 20.7%. Over the course of a year, the working-age population fell by more than 390,000, and the elderly population increased by 600,000.

It will take decades for the results of low birthrate countermeasures to appear in the labor market. The immediate challenge is to make stable use of the current workforce and secure additional personnel from outside sources. The population issue cannot be solved through birth encouragement alone; it is fundamentally a matter of employment and immigration.

First, institutional changes are needed to allow elderly people who are able and willing to work to stay in the workforce longer. Extending the retirement age and continued employment are both welfare policies to supplement old-age income and employment policies to maintain the labor force. However, merely raising the retirement age while leaving seniority-based wage systems and rigid personnel management unchanged may lead to a decline in new hiring. Companies and industries should be allowed to choose methods according to their circumstances, but wage systems should be restructured to reflect job duties, skill levels, and working hours.

Balanced development that disperses businesses and jobs is also a key pillar of the strategy. Local economies must be revitalized to expand opportunities, and this will also help reduce conflicts between continued employment for seniors and youth hiring. Minimum working conditions and consultation procedures should be established to prevent reemployment from degenerating into excessive wage cuts or arbitrary selection mechanisms.

The employment of older workers alone cannot compensate for the decline in the workforce. Last year, an increase in the foreign population prevented a decline in total population, and most foreign residents belong to the working-age group. Many industries would find it difficult to operate without foreign workers. For skilled foreign workers, pathways to long-term residence and settlement should be provided. Greater protections for freedom of workplace transfer, wage payment, and industrial accident support must also be implemented to prevent foreign labor from being treated as a source of cheap labor.

The collapse of the 70% threshold for the working-age population is not a temporary statistical variation. The time for delaying reforms of the retirement age, wage systems, local job creation and balanced development, employment schemes, and immigration policy while waiting for a rebound in birthrates is over. It is time to accept rapid demographic change as reality and engage in practical discussions about who will work, where, and under what conditions. There is not much time left.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.