Over the past 10 years, the aging of small and medium-sized enterprises has steadily deepened, and a recent survey found that last year, nearly half of employees were aged 50 and older.
On the 9th, the Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI) noted in a report titled "Analysis of Employment Trends in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Implications" that 48.6% of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 300 employees are aged 50 or older, which is 22.2 percentage points higher than that of corporations with 300 or more employees (26.4%).
In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 300 employees have seen a 10.6 percentage point increase in workers aged 50 or older compared to 10 years ago in 2014. This figure is 12.5 percentage points higher than the proportion of the population of working age (15 to 64 years old) aged 50 or older, which stands at 36.1%.
Amid this situation, 44.4% of the surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises said they have no plans for new hires this year or plan to reduce hiring compared to the previous year. The Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI) analyzed this as reflecting economic downturn and diminished economic sentiment. The percentage of those responding that they have no hiring plans was 32.3%, while 12.1% said they would reduce hiring, and 42.8% indicated they would maintain hiring at last year's levels, with only 12.9% planning to increase hiring compared to last year.
Noh Min-seon, a researcher at the Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI), said, "The decline in the number of small and medium-sized enterprise workers is starting with professionals in research and development and is now expanding to general personnel. It is necessary to seek efficient utilization strategies for young and older personnel in solving the issue of unfilled positions in small and medium-sized enterprises."