China plans to raise retirement age by year-end amid workforce crisis, decision triggers backlash

Chinese government on Friday passed a legislation announcing plan to increase the retirement age of employees in the country. The entire laid-out plan by the administration will be implemented during the tenure of 15 years, starting from January 2025, CNN reported.

Notably, the Chinese economy currently faces a severe crisis of shrinking workforce alongside its dipping economy and a pension funding crisis for its old-aged citizens. The move has received severe backlash from its citizens on social media with citizens claim that it is a tactic to extend their work years and stop them from accessing their pension as unemployment levels in the country’s youth continue to remain high.

According to the latest rules, the retirement ages will be gradually pushed back to 63 years for male employees and from 55 to 58 years for females as per their occupation. Previously, men in urban areas were allowed to retire at 60 and receive pensions, whereas women at 50 or 55, depending on their occupation.

The CNN report also claimed that the government’s top lawmakers also plan to extend the minimum working period for the country’s employees to receive a monthly pension from 15 to 20 years, by 2030.

According to the same report, “Delayed retirements just means you can’t get your pension until you hit 63, but it doesn’t mean everyone will have a job until then!” wrote one user.

China’s old individuals currently constitute more than 20 per cent totaling about 297 million citizens of the country’s population, according to a report by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. Demographers in China estimate that the elderly population will make up to 30 per cent of the total Chinese population between 2030 and 2035. And this number could likely increase to 40 per cent by 2050.

The CNN report also quoted a 2019 report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank which had claimed that China’s state pension fund would run dry by 2035 due to its dwindling workforce and years of strict pandemic-related restrictions which have shrunk the coffers of local governments.

Last year, several elderly people in China protested in several major cities over the major cuts to their employee medical benefits. The protestors at that time feared that the Chinese government was pushing them to cover the shortages of the Chinsese state pension fund.

Furthermore, the CNN report also claimed that even for those who are still in the working age, the employment market continues to remain a challenge after the pandemic and government-led industry crackdowns in recent years. In July this year, the youth unemployment rate in China had hit 17.1 per cent among those aged between 16 and 24, and was at 6.5 per cent for those aged between 25 to 29, according to state media.

Employers continue to pull back on hiring as the economy slows and people, especially in tech sectors, have widely noted age discrimination in hiring for those over 35, it said.