How does delayed retirement affect you and me
Our reporter Han Bingzhi
"According to the principles of small-step adjustment, flexible implementation, classified promotion, overall planning, etc., the statutory retirement age will be gradually delayed." The expression of the "14th Five-Year" plan and the 2035 long-term goal outline has attracted great attention from the society.
Will delayed retirement affect young people's employment?
Will it affect the payment of pension benefits?
Regarding issues of common concern, the Economic Daily reporter recently interviewed authoritative experts.
Will it have a huge impact on employment?
There is a view that delaying retirement means fewer jobs and it is more difficult for young people to find jobs. There is a general concern that delaying retirement will squeeze out future employment space. Is that true?
"From a static perspective, delayed retirement seems to have a certain negative impact on employment. However, existing studies have not reached the conclusion that delayed retirement must be detrimental to the job market." Professor of the School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, China Employment Research Institute Chang Zeng Xiangquan said that from the perspective of labor supply, the number of working-age people in my country has been declining for eight consecutive years, and the labor participation rate has also continued to decline, and even the total employment in my country has begun to decline since 2018.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country’s population aging process will continue to intensify. The population at the second peak of birth (1962-1972) will enter the aging period, and the elderly population will further increase. With the retirement age policy unchanged, the shortage of labor supply in my country will further intensify in the future.
From the perspective of labor demand, in recent years, the proportion of the service industry’s output value and the proportion of employment has continued to increase, and the service industry has created a large number of employment opportunities due to its employment capacity is significantly higher than that of the manufacturing industry. In addition, the new economy is booming, and the demand for labor has also continued. Rising, the contradiction of recruitment difficulties in the job market has become increasingly prominent.
"Therefore, the core problem facing the future is not the reduction of jobs, but the shortage of labor supply. By delaying retirement and increasing the labor participation rate, the contradiction between the total supply and demand of my country's labor market can be eased to a certain extent." Zeng Xiangquan said.
Mo Rong, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, also said that the impact of delayed retirement on employment is limited and controllable and will not "squeeze" future employment opportunities.
"This kind of'limited control' is due to the gradual delay in retirement reform. Like the usual practice in foreign countries, it is delayed for several months every year or one month every few months. The extra workforce due to delayed retirement every year will not be Too much, and it will even be offset by the annual reduction of labor force.” Mo Rong believes that as the adjustment and upgrading of the industrial structure during the 14th Five-Year Plan period increase, many jobs will be eliminated and more new jobs will be created at the same time.
Delaying retirement in the short term can alleviate the structural contradictions of employment, and in the long run can alleviate the problem of insufficient labor supply.
Will it squeeze young people's employment space?
Some people think that employment means that the old do not retire, and the young cannot get in.
In fact, the labor market is not an absolute one-to-one relationship.
The interviewed experts believe that the post-retirement occupation will not absolutely replace the employment opportunities of young people.
"Because of the hierarchical classification structure in the job market, the employment of older workers and young people has less substitution. Young people are more willing to work in emerging industries and emerging service industries represented by the Internet. Young people’s employment issues, More depends on the structural optimization and quality improvement of economic development, and whether it matches its employability and willingness. With the emergence of a large number of new technologies, new formats, and new models, the ability of economic development to drive employment continues to increase, and young people will find employment. A broader space." Zeng Xiangquan said.
Mo Rong said that delaying retirement does have a certain impact on the employment mechanism of government agencies, institutions, and other institutions. Under the condition that the overall establishment, number of posts, and ranks remain unchanged, the scale of new recruits will be reduced in the short term and internal promotion will be affected. However, due to the small number of people, its impact is still limited.
If the relevant supporting measures can keep up, this problem will be solved.
How to ensure the employment of older workers
The current labor market is not friendly to older workers. With the implementation of delayed retirement, the problem of employment difficulties for older workers may further increase.
In response to this problem, relevant experts suggest that the next step should be to increase the protection of older unemployed persons and help delay the reform of the legal retirement age.
Mo Rong said that my country has established a comprehensive employment policy and employment assistance system in accordance with the people-centered thinking and implementation of a policy of giving priority to employment. For example, there are corresponding safeguards for the unemployed of older ages: First, in accordance with regulations, pay for insurance participation. Unemployed persons who have been employed for one year and have not interrupted their employment due to their own wishes may receive unemployment insurance benefits for no more than 24 months based on the number of years they have participated in the insurance and payment.
The second is that those who have not been employed after the expiry of receiving unemployment insurance benefits and are less than one year away from the legal retirement age can continue to pay unemployment insurance benefits until the legal retirement age.
The third is that older workers who have participated in unemployment insurance and are about to retire can enjoy basic living security in accordance with regulations. At the same time, the basic medical insurance premiums that should be paid are paid from the unemployment insurance fund, and individuals do not pay basic medical insurance premiums.
"Faced with increasingly prominent structural contradictions, it is recommended to continue to implement the lifelong vocational skills training system, to further promote the vocational skills improvement action, to strengthen the job skill improvement training for older workers, and to take multiple measures to improve the skill level of older workers." Mo Rong Say.
Zeng Xiangquan said that from a global perspective, the employment of disadvantaged groups has always been the focus of government departments.
The "Employment Promotion Law" promulgated by our country has a special chapter "Employment Assistance", which clearly requires people's governments at all levels to establish and improve an employment assistance system and give priority support and key assistance to people with employment difficulties.
In recent years, my country has successively introduced a series of policies and measures to provide employment assistance to people who are difficult to achieve employment due to older age, minimum living allowance, and continuous unemployment for more than one year.
"From the perspective of enterprises, the state encourages all types of employers to absorb people with employment difficulties through tax reduction and exemption policies; from the individual perspective, the state encourages self-employed workers to work flexibly and independently through policies such as social insurance subsidies, entrepreneurial guarantee loans, and interest discounts. Entrepreneurship. In addition, through public welfare job placement and other channels, China provides priority support and key assistance to people with employment difficulties. Every New Year's Day and Spring Festival, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and relevant departments carry out special activities such as Spring Breeze Action and Employment Assistance Month. , Organize special recruitment and provide centralized services to help people with employment difficulties and zero-employment family members achieve employment. These measures provide precise services for older workers in need, help older people with employment difficulties realize employment and entrepreneurship, and ensure zero-employment families Dynamic reset." Zeng Xiangquan said.
"Also see the positive side. After decades of work experience, older workers have a strong sense of responsibility, and they have profound experience and technology accumulation. They have obvious advantages in many employment fields. Therefore, older workers should not simply be regarded as enterprises. Zeng Xiangquan said that from international experience, delaying retirement is conducive to increasing the participation rate of older workers, promoting the development of the "silver economy", helping to increase the income and spending power of older workers, and thereby boosting consumer demand. Along with employment growth, the development of human resources for the elderly in China also has broad prospects.
Will the personal benefits of pension be damaged?
Some people think that after retirement is delayed, pension insurance will be paid longer and more.
Although there will be more pensions available every month after retirement, the time for receiving pensions is shorter, and personal interests may be damaged.
"In fact, the basic pension insurance system for employees follows the principle of corresponding rights and obligations. Insured persons who fulfill their payment obligations at working age, reach the legal retirement age and accumulate the prescribed payment period, can receive the basic pension on a monthly basis. Long-term pay is more, and more pay is more.” Sun Jie, deputy dean of the School of Insurance of the University of International Business and Economics, pointed out that at present, my country’s pension benefit calculation and payment system has a strong incentive mechanism. It consists of two parts: pension and personal account pension.
Among them, one year of overpayment will increase the basic pension by 1% upon retirement; one year of late retirement, the number of months of personal account pension calculation will be reduced, the accumulation of personal account will be increased by one year, and the monthly payment will be also increased. There will be a corresponding increase; due to the increase in the payment and calculation base, the adjustment of benefits will also increase accordingly.
"That is to say, continuing to work and paying continuously after retirement will increase the basic pension level of the insured person after retirement. In addition, the extension of the working period will increase the current income of the individual during the working period. Generally speaking, it is beneficial to Personal." Sun Jie said.
Does it affect young people's willingness to have children?
There is a view that delaying retirement will cause older employees, especially female employees, to stay at work and be unable to return to the family to help their children take care of their children. "No one will take care of their children when they are born" is a common concern among young people.
If the retirement age of the elderly population, especially female workers, is greatly increased, will it have an impact on domestic labor in our country, and even affect the labor participation of women in marriage and childbearing age?
Sun Jie said that due to the influence of traditional family culture, the elderly in our country currently play an important role in family care, especially in taking care of the offspring of the next generation. It is common for grandparents to help with their grandchildren.
However, this issue needs to be classified. Generally speaking, delayed retirement is not necessarily related to young people's willingness to bear children.
"Generally speaking, delaying retirement is a state of jogging at a small pace. Instead of delaying a few years of age at once, it adopts gradual reforms, and the pace is generally flat. In particular, those who retire in the early stage of reform may only be delayed for a few months, which is relatively short. , It has little impact on family care and baby-raising activities. In addition, for younger workers, there is still a period of time before retirement, and there is ample time to plan family life." Sun Jie said.
Sun Jie emphasized that under the background of implementing the gradual delay of the legal retirement age, to promote the willingness of young people to have children, relevant departments need to simultaneously improve the childcare policies, promote the domestic service industry to be more standardized, and the admissions to nursery schools will be more convenient. These policies will be more practical. Solve the worries of female employees after giving birth.
Our reporter Han Bingzhi
Our reporter Han Bingzhi