Retirement age rising in Taiwan’s industrial, service sectors

The average retirement age among employees in the industrial and service sectors rose from 57.8 years in 2014 to 58.1 last year, the highest in a decade, according to government statistics released Thursday.

The number of retirees in the two sectors for the whole of 2015 stood at 94,000, accounting for 4.8 percent of the total number across all sectors, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

Most of the retirees in the two sectors were in the 55-64 age group, making up 56.2 percent of the total, followed by the 45-54 age bracket (25.3 percent), and the over-65 group (17.1 percent), the DGBAS data showed.

The average retirement age of 58.1 in the industrial and service sectors last year was the highest since 2006, when that data was first compiled and the figure stood at 55.2 years.

In 2008, Taiwan's government raised the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, citing the country's aging population and fast growing number of retirees.

Meanwhile, the DGBAS said that in 2015, over 60 percent of employees in the industrial and service sectors were in the 25-44 age group and had a bachelor's degree or higher.

The average age of the total workforce in the two sectors was 39.6, compared with 39.4 in 2014, and employees had been working for an average of six years, compared with 5.9 years in 2014, it said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel