A study said Korea's economically active population (those aged between 15 and 64) will continue declining and will likely become a nation with more jobs than people who fill the positions by the year 2020. According to a report "10 Biggest Trends in Employment" published by Hyundai Economic Research Institute on November 30, Korea's economically active population is projected to peak at 37.04 million in 2016 and will turn to a downward trend from 2017. The figure will fall to as low as 27.17 million by 2050. The share of economically active population in total population will also drop to 52.7 percent in 2050 from 72.8 percent in 2010.
The report said this based on the judgment that the baby boomers who were born between 1955 and 1963 will gradually exit the labor market as they grow older. The ratio of those core working age people in their age between 25 and 49 will also decline to 45.2 percent by 2050 from 56.8 percent in 2010 and 51.0 percent in 2020.
The report also stressed that the relationship between employment and economic growth would reverse, from jobless growth to employment without growth. The value of elasticity of employment with respect to output (the value calculated by dividing employment growth rate by economic growth rate) remained at 0.22 during the late 2000s. But the figure has increased to 0.60 in 2010, meaning that for every 1 percent increase in the economy, the number of jobs created would rise by 0.6 percent. But this trend is not always good for the economy, as the growth pace decelerates more and more low value-added service jobs are added.