Nearly 67 percent of South Koreans between the ages of 55 and 79 want to keep working, a survey showed Tuesday. Their preferred retirement age is 73 on average. 

According to a survey conducted by Statistics Korea, some 9.62 million respondents, or 67 percent of the 14.27 million citizens surveyed, said they want to keep working, up 2.5 percentage point from the previous year.

They hoped to earn a monthly wage between 1.5 million won ($1,270) and 2 million won. Nearly 60 percent of the respondents said they want to keep their jobs to cover their living expenses, while 33.8 percent said they were motivated by the pleasure of working.

Fewer than half of the respondents received public pension income, bringing in 630,000 won on average. Their desire to work longer appears to be related to money, officials said.

At the same time, the employment rate for people aged between 55 and 79 fell 0.6 percent on-year to 55.3 percent in May due to the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic. It was the sharpest drop since the 2009 global financial crisis.

The statistics agency has also estimated that the number of Koreans aged 65 or older could surpass 10 million in 2025 and reach 18.79 million, or 38.4 percent of the country’s population, by 2047.

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)