【China Labor Security News】: Multiple Efforts to Explore Aging friendly Employment Positions

Source: "China Labor Security News", October 22, 2024, 3rd edition

Xue Huiyuan, Li Anqi

To actively respond to the aging population, China should fully tap into the potential of elderly human resources and encourage young elderly people with surplus capacity to re-enter the workforce. Re employment of the elderly can not only alleviate the pressure of insufficient labor supply, but also improve the income level and consumption ability of the elderly population, promoting the prosperity of the silver economy. In the future, efforts should be made from multiple aspects to develop aging friendly positions and improve supporting measures to promote the reemployment of the elderly population.

Deeply explore employment opportunities for the elderly

Each region should combine reality to explore positions that require high experience, skills, and patience, but low physical fitness and agility, and recruit and retain older workers.

One is to broaden the field. Elderly people have great potential in new industries, education and counseling, home services, elderly care and child rearing, community services, social activities, property management, and other fields. These industries not only meet the physical condition and time schedule of the elderly population, but also make full use of their social experience to improve their self-efficacy. For example, elderly people with higher cultural and skill levels can serve as tutors, calligraphy teachers, painting teachers, tea artists, horticulturists, pastry chefs, etc., providing guidance to those in need; Elderly individuals with lower skill levels can receive training to provide professional household services and care services for disabled and demented elderly; Elderly people with strong social and communication skills can provide services such as neighborhood dispute resolution, historical and cultural explanations, and local scenic area tours. In addition, elderly people can also participate in new industries in a part-time manner, such as express delivery sorters, ride hailing drivers, or participating in live streaming sales. However, only by lowering the age threshold and restrictions in some industries, allowing competent elderly people to participate as part-time, hourly or volunteer workers, and providing certain rewards, can elderly people have the willingness to continue participating.

The second is"elderly care ". Older people are not only consumers of the 'silver economy', but also producers and creators. The silver hair market, including elderly care services, elderly cultural tourism, elderly consumption, elderly health, and elderly products, should take the lead in absorbing more older workers. Especially in terms of elderly care services, we should vigorously promote the concept of "elderly care for the elderly" and encourage young elderly people to take care of elderly people, which can help fill the current gap in nursing workers in China and also reduce nursing costs appropriately. On the one hand, older workers have a more refined understanding of the needs of the elderly, which can help companies launch products or services that better meet market demand and further promote silver hair consumption; On the other hand, older workers have lower communication costs with target customers, which is beneficial for the sales and iteration of products and services.

The third is independent entrepreneurship. Supporting elderly people to start their own businesses is also a way to expand aging friendly positions. The government can establish an elderly entrepreneurship fund to provide policy incentives, funding, and rewards for eligible entrepreneurial projects, helping interested elderly people to operate their own shops, such as community cafes, community canteens, and small shops, promoting community economic development while also providing new employment opportunities for more elderly people.

Supporting measures are needed for the development of aging friendly positions

The first is to strengthen policy guarantees and incentives. In most cases, older workers can only establish labor relations with employers within the framework of civil law, lacking protection of labor rights and interests, especially in terms of occupational injury protection. Once they suffer a work-related injury, they can only choose the judicial approach of "higher cost of rights protection, uncertain compensation situation, and poor input-output ratio" to claim personal injury compensation. In order to address the concerns of the elderly, priority should be given to solving the issue of work-related injury insurance for older workers. For example, exploring the method of allowing older workers to participate in work-related injury insurance with a single type of insurance, or adopting a commercial insurance path. At the same time, it is also necessary to open up channels for older workers to protect their rights. Legal aid can be provided for labor disputes, work-related injury identification, and labor capacity assessment related to the silver haired economy, and priority should be given to handling them quickly to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers in accordance with the law. In addition, based on international experience, in order to encourage companies to hire elderly employees, Japan has introduced the "Elderly Employment Promotion Law". For example, it improves the employment environment for elderly people, provides various subsidies and rewards to business owners who convert elderly fixed-term contract workers into non fixed term employment, and carries out the selection activities of "Excellent Enterprises for Hiring Elderly People" and "Model Career for Developing Elderly Workplace", which have achieved good results. At present, many enterprises in China are under great operational pressure and need to provide real financial subsidies to encourage employers to actively hire older workers. In this regard, the function of unemployment insurance in preventing unemployment can be further utilized by reducing the cost of hiring older workers for enterprises through forms such as premium refunds.

The second is to strengthen skills training. The government should expand the supply of educational resources, provide customized skills training and re employment psychological counseling for the elderly, and enhance their vocational abilities. For example, various regions can launch the "Silver Hair Skills Enhancement Program" to improve the digital level, interview skills, and common industry skills (such as handicrafts, gardening, cooking, etc.) of the elderly. To encourage more people to participate, economic incentives can be provided, such as training allowances and transportation subsidies for the elderly who participate, and skill enhancement subsidies for the elderly who have obtained vocational certificates. In addition, actively developing senior universities and community activities can effectively promote interaction and communication between the elderly and young people, combining the experience and network of the elderly with the technology and knowledge of the young, and promoting mutual improvement.

Thirdly, smooth employment channels. Firstly, various regions can conduct surveys on the willingness and demand of elderly people for re employment, organize and publish suitable aging positions with high demand, and edit and distribute relevant information and publications. Secondly, a specialized recruitment and communication platform can be established for the elderly, organizing employment events (such as "silver hair job fairs") to promote supply-demand matching between employers and workers. In addition, drawing on Japan's successful experience, it is recommended to vigorously develop elderly talent service centers centered on communities and explore the establishment of a silver haired human resources registration service system. Capable and willing workers over 50 years old will be included as silver haired human resources in the scope of public employment talent services, and will enjoy basic public employment services such as career guidance and job introduction for free, in order to better unleash the residual benefits of the elderly population.