South Korea's working population is aging, since this is the first time the number of elderly employed has outpaced that of the younger age group, according to Statistics Korea on Thursday.

People in their 50s or over and working totaled 9.65 million last year, equal to 37.2 percent of the working population, a detailed analysis by the statistical agency showed. The size of this group was larger than that of the employed in their 20s and 30s combined, which came to 9.37 million, accounting for 36.1 percent. The reversal is the first since the agency began tracking the data in 2000, when twice as many in the younger group (10.63 million) had jobs compared to the elderly (4.86 million) to account for 50.2 percent.

The increased number of elderly in the job market has raised the average age of people in the job market from 41.1 in 2004 to 44.4 last year.

Social trend watchers say the current situation was led by the baby boom generation, a segment of the population defined as people born between 1955 and 1963. This particular generation is larger than other age groups and is staying in the job market even after retirement to support themselves, while new corporate hires of the young have slowed from a protracted economic downturn, they say.

The agency's tally showed that of 337,000 people hired last year, 172,000 were those aged 60 or over, the largest age bracket.

The figure for those in their 20s stopped at 68,000 while that of those in their 30s fell by 38,000.

The younger working group still dominated the job market in 2011 when it outnumbered the over-50 group by 1 million people. But the difference has continued to narrow, to 910,000 in 2012, 410,000 in 2013, and to just 5,000 in 2014 before the reversal in 2015.

"The current labor market is frozen in a situation where existing workers are staying rather than people newly entering," professor Kim Kwang-seok of Hanyang University said.  "With the pushback of the official retirement age this year, the trend is bound to continue." (Yonhap)