• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.62-77
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• 1979

The purpose of this study is to explain the increasing trend of the aged population and its demographic characteristics. This study is based on the data for the aged population above 65 years old published by the Bureau of Statistics, Economic Planning Board. The increasing trend of the aged population has been analyzed and projected from 1955 to the year 2000. Some demographic charicteristics of the aged population including marital status, educational status and status of economic activities have also been analyzed in order to identify the problems associated with aging of population in Korea. The study offers the following conclusion. 1. The aged population index, the proportion of aged population to total population was 3.6 in 1975 and projected to be 6.6 in 2000. There has been steady increase of the aged population is reflected in changes of population structure. The proportional change of the aged population index was 100.0 in 1955, 109.0 in 1975 and 200.0 in 2000 respectively. 2. As for marital status of the aged population 77.6 per cent of male were married while 24.3 per cent of female were married in 1975. 22 per cent of male were widowed while it spouses died declined remarkable the mortality rate declined. 3. As the educational status of the aged, 77 per cent never attended school and 18 per cent attended from a primary school. This is very low and the number of educated men is higher than that of educated women. The rank ordering of schooling is city, Eub and Myeon in that aged. 4. The dependency ratio of the aged population was 5.9 in 1955, 6.1 in 1975 and will be 9.8 in 2000. It is gradually increasing as indicated above 20 per cent of aged population was economically active of these, they are employed in the following occupations as listed in order of the magnitude of the aged population employed. The employment status of the aged workers shows that a greater number of persons are self-employed than workers for another employer. In particular, temporary employees comprise 56.0 per cent of those employed.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.247-291
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• 2018

This study investigates the employment structure and the social safety net experience of the subcontracting cleaning workers in Korea, who have been main targets of the labor outsourcing despite the necessity and permanence of their labour. This study specifically focuses on the fact that these subcontracting cleaning workers are mostly female and in their old age, and analyzes how the combination of their age, gender, and employment structure leads to the (mis)match with the Korean social security system. Case study with in-dept interview method has been conducted to the old-aged female subcontracting cleaning workers in Korea. The result of this study is as follows. It was the income insecurity that led them to (re)enter the labour market, and the cleaning work was the almost the only wage work they could do considering their age and gender. Cleaning workers are mostly employed in the subcontracting company, and thus their labour contracts depend on the business contract period between the original and subcontracting company. Consequently, their employment relationship is mostly insecure unless they are guaranteed employment succession through the collective agreement of trade union. Moreover, it has been discovered that the employment insecurity due to the indirect employment relationship led to the poor labour conditions, low wage, and the exclusion from the social safety net.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 2018

Background: Due to an increasing number of workers aged 50 years and above, the number of those employed is also on the rise, and those workers aged 50 and over has exceeded 50% of the total fatal occupational injuries. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the selection and concentration by identifying the characteristics of high-risk groups necessary for an effective prevention against and reduction of fatal occupational injuries. Methods: This study analyzed the characteristics of high-risk groups and the occupational injury fatality rate per 10,000 workers among the workers aged 50 and over through a multi-dimensional analysis by sex, employment status of workers, industry and occupation by targeting 4,079 persons who died in fatal occupational injuries from January 2007 to December 12. Results: The share of the workers aged 50 years and above is increasing every year in the total fatal occupational injuries occurrence, and the high-risk groups include 'male workers' by sex, 'daily workers' by worker's status, 'craft and related-trades workers' by occupation, and 'mining' by industry. Conclusion: The most frequent causal objects of fatal occupational injuries of the workers aged 50 years and above are found out to be 'installment and dismantlement of temporary equipment and material on work platforms including scaffold' in the construction industry and 'mobile crane, conveyor belt and fork lifts' in the manufacturing industry.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.147-174
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• 2013

Until recently, self-employment workers are often excluded from labor market studies. Most relevant studies has focused on the determinants of entry into self-employment. However, the self-employment is highly exposed to poverty risk although they are working. Despite that, relatively little is known about the economic severity of the self-employed. This study uses data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study to examine the situation of the self-employed's in-work poverty and the determinants of in-work poverty among them. Major findings are as follows. First, self-employed people experience 3.5 times higher in-work poverty risk than employees. Especially, the ratio of own-account self-employed people living below the poverty line is similar with that of even precarious employees. Second, the extent of poverty of self-employment is more serious. Third, the proportion of self-employed among working poor is about 53% although self-employed workers are composed of only about 24% among working people. Fourth, temporary employees and self-employed people are more likely to be poor than full time employees according to logistic regression. It is statistically significant. It implies that it is desirable to regard the self-employed as the policy target group along with temporary employees. Fifth, the ratio of in-work poverty of self-employed aged 40-64 whose education level is low and the self-employed aged 40-64 who work in low-skilled service sector are higher than that of the other group. It implies that measures to alleviate their economic difficulties are urgently needed.

• Journal of the Korea society of information convergence
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 2012

Korea has entered into an aging society at an exceptionally high speed. Increasing aged workers give pressure on Korean companies with seniority based pay system with labor costs. The wage peak system has been introduced to Korean companies as an alternative to early retirements. The wage peak system currently adopted in Korea is mainly the aging-limit-security model. But in the future we should actively adopt the employment-extension model. To operate wage peak system successfully, I suggest introduction of the individual wage peak system, development of suitable jobs for the aged, selective application by job classification, incentive graded by performance evaluation, and working hour reduction with the decreased rate of wage.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.718-728
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is how the semi-elderly have been participated in the elderly employment program, and to find what are the factors influencing their keeping on the work since retired from the Lavor market. To convert the Row-data obtained from Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the aged, 13,370cases were used to analyze finally. The date analysis was applied with Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation and Logistic regression using program of SPSS 18.0. The analysis is shows that semi-elderly who had participated in more than 270 days a year in elderly employment program formed 41.2%. The most important factor that the semi-elderly have been participated in working is payment, and others are gender, solitary life, motivation of working and type of elderly employment program. Based on the results of this study, We conducted policy suggestion to achieve the purposes of elderly employment program and to make income from it, for semi-elderly retiring from the labor market.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.130-138
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• 2007

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the working condition of occupational health nurses and analyze change pattern of working condition compared to 10 years ago. Method: A questionnaire was measured to 431 occupational health nurses attending the training program held by the Korean Association of Occupational Health Nurses during the period from June 2005 through November 2005. Results: The number of respondents aged 30 years or older and those who are married increased, compared their counterparts found in the earlier study conducted in 1996. Respondents with a college degree accounted for 13.5% in the earlier study, but respondents with a college degree increased to 38.0% in the study. Those with more than 10 years of work experience also increased. Employment type of respondents divided into permanent employment(56.3%) and contract-based employment(41.1%), compared with permanent employment(66.4%) and contract-based employment(32.0%) found in the earlier study. Of total respondents, 91.1% said their retirement age was 55 years or above, and the ratio is higher than that found in the earlier study. Conclusion: The study revealed that the working condition for occupational health nurses especially career recognition, employment type and promotion system were getting worse. It is therefore necessary to implement measures to improve those conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.365-373
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• 2018

Objective: This study aims to analyze the relationship between employment status and the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for manufacturing and construction workers. Methods: Subjects, who had or have worked as temporary workers in manufacturing or construction worksites for the longest career years, were extracted from the KNHANES(2007-2009) database. Characteristics of demographical, socio-economic, and smoking history were treated as independent variables. Considering that smoking experience and age are significantly influential in the prevalence of COPD, logistic regressions were analyzed after stratifying subjects according to their smoking experience and age. A two-stage stratified systematic sampling method was applied for the logistic regression analysis. Results: Age, gender, and household income level were associated with the prevalence of COPD in both smoking and non-smoking groups. However, employment status was only significant among smoking group. Smoking experience and age were significantly related to the prevalence of COPD among all age groups. In addition, employment status and household income level were also associated with the prevalence of COPD in young aged group. But gender was the only significant factor among the elder group. Conclusions: This study confirmed that employment status was a major social factor which may be related to the prevalence of COPD. Proper supports such as providing safety measures should be provided to temporary workers to manage their respiratory health.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.549-567
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• 2019

The present study examined whether the relation between relative handgrip strength and cognitive function varied by paid employment status and participation of social activities among Korean older adults. A total of 3,376 Korean adults aged 65 or older were drawn from the 2016 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA). Weighted hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine moderating effects of paid employment status and social activities on the relation between relative handgrip strength and cognitive function. After adjusting for covariates, results show that relative handgrip strength has a positive association with cognitive function. Both paid employment status and social activities have positive associations with cognitive function and moderate the relationship between relative handgrip strength and cognitive function. These significant moderating effects show that participating in paid employment and social activities buffer against the effect of lower handgrip strength on cognitive function. Findings from the present study highlight the significant role of active aging in older adults'cognitive function. Implications are discussed in a cultural context.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.102-107
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• 2022

South Korea will soon be a super-aged society, as more than 20.6% of its population will be 65 years and older by 2025. As of 2022, 17.5% of the total population in South Korea is 65 years and older, which exceeds the set threshold for an aged society, where more than 14% of the population is 65 years and older. The proportion of older subway construction workers has increased. Aging workers and their work stress negatively impact their workability. A previous study demonstrated that the stress index measured using the uBioMacpa measurement device (Macpa stress index) had a significant correlation with work stress in South Korea. The device tests vascular health and measures stress levels via Macpa signal analysis. In this study, the pulse waves of subway construction workers were measured using uBioMacpa to identify their stress levels. The stress levels were analyzed by age, years of service, job position, employment type, and work type. Herein, these statistics could not be easily represented by a normal distribution; therefore, the Kruskal-Wallis test, a nonparametric statistical method, was used for the analysis of data. The results showed that age, job position, employment type, and working type affected the Macpa stress index and the stress levels of workers increased with age. In terms of job position, technical engineers were more stressed than other workers because of their poor working environment. In terms of employment type, daily-wage workers were more stressed than other workers. In terms of working type, tunneling, waterproofing, and construction scored the highest Macpa stress indexes without any significant difference, whereas earthworks scored the lowest. Based on the analysis of Macpa stress index, safety and health management plans were proposed to reduce the stress levels of workers. Moreover, a manual for efficient stress management must be developed for subway construction workers.