A security guard in his 60s sorts recyclable materials as part of his duties at an apartment complex in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, in photo taken in 2020. Korea Times file

Shin Jung-rok, a retired mid-level official from a district office in Gyeonggi Province, recently left his last job as a security guard at an office building in Seoul.

He says he desperately needed a job after retirement because he found the severance pay he received to "not be sufficient" to survive.

"However, being a security guard was not my choice. Instead, it was the only option that I was left with," he said, adding no employers were interested in capitalizing on his "decades of expertise in the civil service."

"And for people like me, who mostly worked in an office, a job as a security guard was a lot to take on as it is physical demanding by my standard. It was too much for me to carry out the tasks required," he added.

Shin is among the increasing number of retirees in their 60s or older, who are forced to continue work after retirement as they have insufficient money to survive in Korea where life expectancy is the OECD's third highest at 83.53 years.

They want to make use of their career experiences in their post-retirement job but can't do so, because many employers deem that they are not as productive as younger employees.

As a result, they are mostly left with unwanted manual labor jobs, which therefore fail to motivate them. This impacts productivity and affects their ability to contribute to the economy in a personally meaningful way.

A cleaner in her 60s cleans a urinal in a men's bathroom of an office building in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District in this photo taken in 2020. Korea Times file

"In that regard, quality jobs for retirees is a matter of the national interest and the public and private sectors must work closely together for elderly citizens to go on with their careers," Chung-Ang University economics professor Ma Kang-rae said.

He referred to an analytical report released last month by the Korea Development Institute (KDI), a government-affiliated think tank, on jobs for middle-aged and older people.

The report showed that people, as they get older, had a higher possibility of obtaining jobs that are not relevant to their aptitude, talent, passion and other factors that are deemed necessary to optimize productivity.

The gap between ideal and actual jobs for these workers, according to the report, especially widened as these people reached 50 or older.

"The age groups apparently include those who are retired, suggesting the labor market is failing to make use of retirees as capable human resources," the report read.

In a statement, Worker's Solidarity, an advocacy group for workers, called on the government to "foster a more welcoming environment for the older workers."

A jobseeker goes over a list of available jobs during a job fair for seniors in Seoul's Mapo District in this photo taken in 2023. Yonhap

"It is urgent to take corresponding measure as seniors inevitably make up a larger portion of the country's workforce amid the dwindling birthrate," it said, citing data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety earlier this month.

The data indicated that as of July 10, there were 10,000,062 people aged 65 or older, making up 19.5 percent of the nation's total population of nearly 51.27 million.

The rate of older adults has consistently grown, from 11.8 percent in 2013 to 15.5 percent in 2019 and 17.5 percent in 2022.

It was the first time that the number of older adults surpassed the 10 million mark, bringing Korea just a step away from becoming a super-aged society, which is defined as a nation that has more than 20 percent of its population aged 65 or over.

The data added to concerns over Korea's demographic crisis, characterized as possessing the world's lowest birthrate.

In 2023, the total fertility rate or the average number of expected births from a woman in her lifetime slid to a record low of just 0.72, according to Statistics Korea.

The rate was far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.

The rate is projected to drop to another fresh low of 0.68 in 2024, considering the quarterly rate of fertility beaks its own record. In the January-March period, it retreated to an all-time low of 0.76 percent. The rate tends to fall even further toward the end of the year.

Asked about possible solutions to help older adults land quality jobs that match their pre-retirement careers, professor Ma said that "removing unconscious bias against senior workers is crucial."

"Employers tend to think that seniors who seek post-retirement jobs are not as committed as young peers in terms of work mindset," the professor said, adding "Employers thus regard them as those who are merely working for pocket money."

"But in an aged society, such biases will work against employers and they should treat seniors equally," he said.

Worker's Solidarity maintains that job matching for seniors is a more urgent matter in rural areas, many of which are on the brink of becoming extinct as young people leave for Seoul or other large cities in search of better jobs and higher living standards.

Of the more than 10 million Koreans aged 65 or older, 5.51 million were living outside the greater Seoul area, surpassing those living within the area at 4.49 million.

By region, South Jeolla Province had the highest ratio of older adults at 26.7 percent, followed by North Gyeongsang Province at 25.4 percent and Gangwon Province at 24.7 percent.

The city of Sejong had the lowest ratio at just 11.3 percent, while Seoul had approximately 19 percent.