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Government to Create 80,000 Jobs for Elderly
By Kim Cheong-won, Korea Times
South Korea
February 1, 2006
The government will spend more than 110 billion won this year to create 80,000 jobs for senior citizens as part of its preparation for an aging society.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare Wednesday announced the plan, saying that it will employ senior citizens over-65 to work in such sectors as environmental preservation, traffic and parking regulation and maintenance.
The ministry launched the program in 2004, providing 47,000 senior citizens with six-month-long jobs last year.
"We will increase the number of jobs to 80,000 this year and expand the work period to seven months to help the elderly," said Song Jai-seong, vice health and welfare minister.
He added that the government will also join hands with other civil organizations to create 100,000 jobs for senior citizens in civic areas, in addition to the government-initiated program.
In particular, the ministry will focus on "elderly to elderly" care programs, in which jobless senior citizens help the elderly who are suffering degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The elderly jobless will be paid by the government as a part of the job-creation program, officials said.
"The plan is intended to strengthen the country's social safety net and improve welfare services to the public to ease the disparities between rich and poor," Song said.
The ministry will continuously develop the program with the intention of creating 360,000 jobs for elderly by 2009.
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), the number of jobless aged 60 or older has increased over the past year as a growing number of elderly enter the job market in a sluggish economy.
The number of unemployed South Koreans over 60 reached 32,000 last year, up 18.53 percent from a year earlier, NSO statistics showed.
Rapidly increasing life expectancy is adding to the period when elderly people need jobs.
Government statistics show that the nation's average life expectancy reached 77.5 years in 2003, an increase of half a year from the previous year.
The male life span reached 73.9 years, compared to 74.9 years for the average life span of males living in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 30 rich nations. Korean women recorded 80.8 years, slightly higher than the 80.7 years for the average female of the OECD countries.
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