Nearly two-thirds of deaths due to industrial accidents in 2024 involved workers aged 55 or above, government data showed Sunday, amid the rapid aging of South Korea's workforce and overall population.
A total of 2,098 workers were compensated for work-related deaths and diseases in 2024, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's report. Of the deaths, 1,381 were aged at least 55 (65.8 percent), which is the legal threshold for being considered an "elderly worker" under the Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Elderly Employment Promotion.
The data showed that the death rate was dramatically higher among older workers, as 1,107 employees aged 60 and above died in 2024. The next highest mortality rates were in the 55-59 group (274) and 50-54 group (248), falling sharply to 160 and 153 in the 45-49 group and 40-44 group, respectively.
Younger groups showed far lower mortality rates, with 16 deaths in the 18-24 group, 32 deaths in the 25-29 group, 39 deaths in the 30-34 group, and 69 deaths in the 35-39 group.
Industrial accidents involving workers 55 and older made up roughly half (52.4 percent) of the 142,771 such incidents that year, indicating that older workers' fatality rate in accidents was higher than that of their younger counterparts.
Older workers have a higher risk of industrial accidents due to their deteriorating motor skills and sense of balance, according to a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute. "Even when doing the same type of work, older workers are more vulnerable to accidents due to the deterioration of their physical abilities," the report said.
It also pointed out that a large proportion of work-related deaths among elderly employees occur in construction and manual labor, indicating that a majority of them are in high-risk lines of work.
The growing health hazards facing older workers are another pressing issue in Korea, where the average age of the working population has recently increased substantially.
The country's employment rate for those aged 65 and above marked 37.3 percent in 2023, higher than for any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the National Assembly Budget Office's report in May.
The findings indicated that a substantial proportion of older workers are forced into jobs for financial reasons.
The report showed that the senior population earned an average of about 800,000 won ($549) a month, which is significantly lower than the government-designated minimum cost of living for one person in 2024, which was 1.34 million won. Additionally, 61.2 percent of workers 65 and older were in insecure jobs, while 35.4 percent were doing manual labor.
Another report by the Ministry of Data and Statistics in August showed that the working population among the 55-79 group surpassed the 10 million mark for the first time.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
