China’s Proposal to Raise Retirement Age Sparks Worker Unease
- Delaying retirement could give China time to boost birth rates
- China’s population shrank by more than 2 million last year
China’s job market remains sluggish amid an economic slowdown.
Photographer: Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
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The Communist Party’s pledge to gradually increase the retirement age has renewed unease in China, where people’s livelihoods are already challenged by a sluggish job market, persistent hiring discrimination and evolving technologies.
Officials in Beijing announced after a party conclave last week that the retirement age will rise in a “voluntary, flexible manner,” without giving more details. The retirement age for white-collar workers has been kept at 60 for men and 55 for women for more than four decades, putting China at the lower end of the spectrum worldwide.