Goyang Special City (Mayor Lee Dong-hwan) supports competitive senior job creation projects to support senior citizens’ active social participation, stable jobs, and profit generation.
In Goyang City, 8,380 people in three fields will participate in this year’s senior job creation project. In the public business field, 6,000 people participate in public interest activities and 1,270 people in social service projects, and in the private business field, 1,110 people participate in manufacturing and sales, store operation, service provision, and job placement. This year’s business scale increased by 26% compared to last year and is the largest among cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do.
Those eligible to participate in senior jobs are usually over 65 years old and work 30 hours a month, and there are slight differences in participation age, working hours, and salary level depending on the type of business. The participating organizations are 11 organizations, including Goyang Senior Club, Goyang Silver Human Resources Bank, etc., employment agencies for the elderly, 3 senior welfare centers, and 3 district senior citizen branches.
Goyang Special Mayor Lee Dong-hwan said, “The senior citizen job project provides active social participation and pastimes, adds vitality to life, and helps with economic stability through income generation.” “We are actively discovering and expanding market-type job projects that can secure competitiveness,” he said.
Increase in elderly population, high poverty rate… Increasing importance of elderly social participation and employment
As of July this year, the population of people aged 65 or older in Korea exceeds 10.024 million, accounting for approximately 19.5% of the total population. Due to the retirement and aging of the baby boom generation, the 65-year-old population is rapidly increasing, and it is expected that we will enter a super-aging society next year, with the elderly population accounting for more than 20%.
According to ‘Pension at a Glance 2023’ announced by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last year, the poverty rate for the elderly in Korea is 40.4% as of 2020, which is three times higher than the OECD average of 14.2%. Korea’s pension replacement rate is 50.9% for the low-income group and 31.2% overall, which is far below the OECD average of 64.5% for the low-income group and 51.8% overall.
Due to the increase in the elderly population and high poverty rate, the importance of elderly people’s social participation and employment is increasing, leading to increased demand for elderly welfare and financial burden. This is because, in a situation where the elderly population is 20%, it is difficult to cover the financial burden with cash-based welfare benefits. It is pointed out that various social participation opportunities should be provided and self-development, education, and skill improvement programs should be established to ensure economic independence.
Goyang Special Mayor Lee Dong-hwan said, “In the case of public jobs supported by the public sector, most of them have restrictions on working hours and periods, so there are limits to continuous income generation. “From the consumer’s perspective, securing stable income and jobs is important, so efforts are needed to improve the quality of jobs by continuously expanding market-type jobs that are competitive and capable of generating profits,” he emphasized.
Goyang City expands profit-generating jobs for seniors… Received the Manifesto Best Practice Award
Goyang Special City is actively supporting and expanding private market-type senior citizen jobs that can generate profits, such as dishcloth farms, grandmothers and sewing machines, and senior convenience stores.
The ‘Haengju Farm’ business group produces HACCP certified sesame oil and perilla oil. It is being sold both online and offline, including at a total of 18 Nonghyup local food stores in Goyang City and Paju City, online shopping mall Naver Store, Coupang, and Gyeonggi Province Co., Ltd. We produce a variety of products to respond to recent consumption trends, including stick-type sesame and perilla oil and three types of roasted sesame seeds, and are recording stable sales performance.
In addition, design elements were applied to production packaging containers and labels, and a high-end strategy was used to enhance the image of the product. We conduct ingredient tests every month and introduce a product management system to provide safe food that consumers can trust.
The ‘Grandma and Sewing Machine’ business group is responsible for producing and selling sewing products and repairing clothing using sewing machines. We produce a variety of products such as vests, aprons, arm sleeves, cool bags, cup holders, attachment dolls, eco bags, raincoats, and picnic mats. When registering the birth of a third or older child, we also produce a ‘Dabok Package’ as a congratulatory gift for the birth provided by Goyang City.
Project participants can minimize career breaks by participating in jobs based on their past sewing-related work experience, such as at dressmakers. It is a career-linked senior job project where the skills and experience possessed by seniors are not lost due to retirement but are used again in the local community. The willingness of participants is high, and satisfaction with their jobs is high. We are creating new value by diversifying sales channels through local government childbirth promotion policies and agreements with social enterprises.
Goyang Senior Club began operating the ‘GS25 Senior Convenience Store’ for the first time in the country, becoming a pilot project for senior citizens in Gyeonggi Province, and this year, it is being expanded to a nationwide project. 28 people will participate from two branches in Goyang City (Jungsan Sandeul Branch, Juyeop Hansarang Branch).
Senior convenience stores are having a positive effect as a senior job creation project that operates convenience stores in conjunction with companies and generates income. Senior job market-type businesses face the greatest difficulties in developing sales channels for the products they produce, but senior convenience stores have the advantage of lowering the burden of developing sales channels. The senior convenience store (Juyeop Hansarang Branch), in conjunction with the grandmother and sewing machine business, also provides a service of accepting and picking up clothing to be repaired at the convenience store.
Goyang Special City introduced the cases of Dishcloth Farm, Grandmother and Sewing Machine, and GS25 Senior Convenience Store at the 2024 Manifesto Best Practice Contest jointly hosted by the Korea Manifesto Implementation Headquarters and Gyeongnam Research Institute last August and was evaluated as a leading senior citizen job for a prosperous old age. Goyang City won the grand prize.
Economy Queen Reporter Hongmi Kim / Photo Goyang City
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2024-10-02 00:34:36