Korea Has World's Highest Employment Rate for Elderly People

Korea has the highest employment rate for people over 65. That may either be a positive sign attesting to the physical and mental ability of elderly people to work or reflect the sad reality that they have to find menial or part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Monday quoted a study of G7 nations and eight other countries which showed that Japan had a very high employment rate for the elderly last year at 25.1 percent, but Korea ranked even higher with 34.1 percent.

Other developed economies ranked way lower with the U.S. at 18 percent, Canada at 12.8 percent, the U.K. at 10.5 percent, Germany at 7.4 percent and Italy at five percent.

A high employment rate among senior citizens is sometimes seen as a positive sign that a country is prepared to meet the challenges of an aging population such as a dwindling economically active population.

But Korea also lacks the legislative framework to protect senior citizens from poverty.