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The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China’s legislative body, recently announced the retirement age will increase for the first time since the 1950s, the BBC reported.
Where in the world? Starting in Jan. 2025, the retirement age in China will start “gradually” rising so that by 2040 it will have increased from 60 to 63 for men, 50 to 55 for women in blue-collar jobs, and 55 to 58 for women in white-collar jobs.
The country has one of the lowest retirement ages in the world, on par with India, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. According to NPR, China hasn’t changed its retirement age since the 1950s, when the life expectancy was around 40.
While the government is concerned about its declining birth rate and rapidly aging population, it’s also grappling with a slower economy, high youth unemployment rate, and recent corporate layoffs.
Some workers in China are skeptical of the changes, afraid that the retirement age will be increased again in a few years, despite the other struggles they already face.
"What a miserable year! Middle-aged workers are faced with pay cuts and raised retirement ages. Those who are unemployed find it increasingly difficult to get jobs," one person wrote on the social media site Weibo.
Satellite view. Many countries and employers have been trying to plan for aging workforces, declining birth rates, and the new skills that will be necessary in technology-powered economies. France, the Netherlands, and Italy all announced increases in the retirement age in recent years.
One company in South Korea said it will pay its workers to have children. Japan is reskilling some of its population to fill roles in understaffed industries like IT. And roughly 40% of employers in Japan have workers over 70 as the country struggles with labor shortages.