Even Middle-Aged People Caught in Debt Trap

Koreans are getting into debt faster than their income rises, even the middle-aged and elderly, who are usually more prudent.

According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, people between 40 and 64 earned a respectable W36.92 million on average per year as of November last year, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier (US$1=W1,193). But their average debt rose 7.1 percent to W52 million, about 2.5 times faster.

There were 13.04 million workers in the age bracket. Some 10.64 million or a whopping 81.6 of them were wage laborers, up 2.7 percent.

This was because most new jobs were menial positions created by the government.

Some 778,000 were hired in public administration, up 18.3 percent on-year, and 1.11 million were in public health and welfare service jobs, up 6.1 percent.

Manufacturing jobs increased only 0.7 percent to 2.22 million, and construction jobs shrank 1.5 percent to 1.27 million.

Only 373,000 were hired in hospitality, which took a heavy blow from the coronavirus pandemic, down 9.4 percent on-year.