Supporting 2nd Baby Boomer Reemployment: "150,000 Jobs and Training Support Over 3 Years"

Supporting Reemployment for Middle-Aged Workers Who Want to Work
Expanding Training for Certification-Based Technical Jobs
Proactively Creating Jobs for Career Transitions
"Successful Case of Hotel Room Inspectors Last Year"

As the retirement of the second baby boomer generation (born 1964?1974) accelerates, the government has announced measures to support reemployment training and provide tailored job opportunities for 150,000 middle-aged and older adults over three years. Since many middle-aged individuals seek reemployment based on certifications such as forklift operation and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), training to help acquire promising certifications will be expanded. The plan also includes career transition measures that identify necessary middle-aged jobs by region and assist with recruitment training.

Job seekers filling out job application forms at the '2024 Hope Happiness Future Job Fair' last year.

On the 6th, Kim Moon-soo, Minister of Employment and Labor, visited the Jung-gu Middle-aged Tomorrow Center in Seoul and held a meeting with middle-aged participants in the center’s employment services, company representatives who hired middle-aged workers, and consultants. This meeting was held to discuss the 'Support Plan for Middle-aged People Finding Jobs' for 9.54 million people in their 50s and 60s, the second baby boomer generation (born 1964?1974), who have excellent experience, skills, and physical strength but face early retirement, and to gather field opinions.

The support plan unveiled by the Ministry of Employment and Labor includes three types of training and job support: qualification-based, career transition-based, and career linkage-based. The aim is to prepare customized measures for middle-aged individuals with experience in various occupations such as experts, technicians, office workers, service workers, and field workers.

The qualification-based type involves developing promising certification fields with high employment rates and supporting training to acquire related certifications through institutions like Polytechnics. This includes expanding promising certification training not only for forklift operators (such as forklift operator technician) but also for HVAC installation and management (such as air conditioning and refrigeration technician) and electricians (such as electrical technician), thereby promoting reemployment in technical occupations.

Im Young-mi, Director of the Integrated Employment Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, explained, "HVAC technicians are required to be hired in buildings over five stories," adding, "The wages are not low, and they can work until the age of 75, so demand is high." The ministry plans to support promising certification training for 3,500 people this year and 140,000 people over three years. Additionally, for middle-aged individuals needing field experience, a 'Career Support Project' will be newly established this year to provide work experience opportunities.

The career transition-based type targets middle-aged office workers, service workers, and sales workers who often move to other occupations, aiming to discover 6,000 career transition jobs over three years. Customized training will be supported by finding suitable jobs by region through local universities and Middle-aged Tomorrow Centers. Representative examples include software testers (who conduct testing during software app development) and hotel room inspectors (who check the cleanliness and condition of hotel rooms).

Director Im said, "Office workers often leave without preparation at retirement and cannot move to related jobs, so career transition is necessary." She added, "Software testers and hotel room inspectors were pilot projects last year and were successful cases. We will find jobs suitable for each region, provide training, and collaborate with associations representing demand companies to design job roles when developing training courses."

The career linkage-based type targets middle-aged technical and professional workers in fields such as finance who seek reemployment based on their existing careers. Companies support retirees’ job changes or transfers to related positions within their own or partner companies, or associations promote job changes within related industries. The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to discover more than six excellent career linkage job models this year and support 4,000 jobs over three years to expand this across all industries.

Minister Kim Moon-soo said at the meeting, “We will provide tailored training and jobs to a total of 150,000 people over three years to further spread the excellent middle-aged employment cases presented today.” He also added, "For policies to be effectively implemented on the ground, the vivid opinions of middle-aged individuals and companies must be reflected," "We will do our best to widely disseminate the excellent job-finding cases shared today so that they serve as examples and give hope to other middle-aged people."