[K-Women Talk] Retiree Reemployment Requires Early Preparation

December is the season of personnel changes. Since executives who are not subject to mandatory retirement tend to have personnel changes concentrated in December, emotions often run high. Inevitably, the time to close the main chapter of one’s career comes to everyone. For most office workers, their company holds significant meaning in defining their identity. Leaving a company where one has worked for nearly 30 years can shake not only their income but also their sense of self. For those who have devoted themselves solely to their workplace, retirement can become a major crisis if not prepared for in advance.

Those who have already experienced retirement often advise their juniors to lower their expectations. This is because it is a realistically necessary piece of advice. How much one should lower their expectations, and whether lowering them will make finding a job easier, are different matters altogether.

Recently, I heard an interesting story at a lecture by a policy official. When asked what certification retirees in Korea most commonly obtain, more people reportedly acquire forklift operator licenses than real estate brokerage licenses. This is likely because obtaining the forklift license is relatively easy and there is high demand for it. However, although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) always face labor shortages, they do not hire retirees from large corporations as forklift operators. This is due to the high risk of accidents caused by lack of skilled experience. Not only forklift operators but also retirees from large corporations rarely succeed in settling into jobs at SMEs.

In conclusion, reemployment requires considerable preparation well in advance. Under the current Age Discrimination Prohibition and Employment Promotion of Older Persons Act, large corporations employing 1,000 or more workers are mandated to provide reemployment support services for retirees. Introduced in 2019, this system was designed to support retirees’ reemployment at the corporate level. However, the mandatory training and counseling have been evaluated as largely ineffective.

For companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, free reemployment services are provided through the Korea Labor Foundation, but it appears that not many companies utilize these services properly. Just as youth job support services, which were initially focused on university graduates, have recently been extended to second- and third-year university students, wouldn’t it be better if reemployment support were provided earlier to workers who are contemplating their career paths rather than waiting until retirement is imminent? This would certainly be more effective.

Meanwhile, in response to the decline in the working-age population, active consideration should be given to working longer in primary jobs. Japan, facing a super-aged society, mandated employment security measures up to age 65 in 2006 and has been enforcing efforts to secure employment up to age 70 since 2021. However, it is important to clearly recognize that Japan has lower wage seniority than Korea, which reduces the burden of employing older workers. It is also worth noting that employment security measures and efforts to secure employment are implemented more as reemployment schemes with wage restructuring rather than as extensions of mandatory retirement age. Although youth employment and older worker employment are not necessarily conflicting at the macro level, they inevitably influence each other at the micro level.

In an aging society where the working-age population is shrinking, simply extending the mandatory retirement age under a seniority-based wage system will inevitably affect youth employment. It is urgently necessary to design delicate systems that allow older workers to work longer in harmony with youth employment, while supporting individuals to prepare for second or third careers in advance. For those who prepare early, the December winds will not feel so cold.

Kim Kyung-sun, Former Vice Minister of Gender Equality and Family