Looming demographic woes

Extending retirement age needed to tackle population aging

The government unveiled its policy to cope with demographic challenges Wednesday, marked by the ultralow birthrate and superfast population aging. At an interagency meeting, the participants discussed four primary tasks ― replenishing the working-age population, cushioning the impact of population decline, coping with the rising numbers of elderly people, and managing the expected increase in welfare expenditure.

To expand the productive population, the government will focus on opening its doors wider to foreigners and incentivizing businesses to hire older workers. More specifically, it plans to expand the issuance of long-term stay visas to lure skilled foreign laborers, and allow highly-educated professionals to bring their families with them. The administration seems to be going in the right direction, given the recent fall in the number of international professionals here, despite the overall rise of foreign residents in the nation.

Starting in 2020, the government will subsidize companies that hire elderly workers by giving their employers a monthly allowance of 800,000 won ($672) per aged worker for up to one year. The policymakers are right to try to make the best of the workforce both able and willing to work. A better move, however, is to start a national discussion to extend the legal retirement age beyond the current 60, instead of offering temporary benefits.

Korea's demographic problems are grave, indeed. The nation's total birthrate ― the average number of children a woman wants to bear in her lifetime ― has plunged to 0.98, making Korea the only such country among 36 OECD member nations, among which the average rate stands at 1.65. If the current trend continues, Korea's population will peak in 2028 at 52 million and begin to shrink after that.

Successive governments have poured more than 120 trillion won into staving off the demographic fiasco, to no avail. The decline of the total population calls for enormous changes in various areas, such as the demand for teachers, military troops and residential facilities. Unless the nation makes meticulous preparations, it will run into aggravating social conflict close to a disaster. This shows why policymakers ought to follow up with elaborate and viable action plans as soon as possible.