China is to raise the retirement age for the first time since 1978, as the world’s second-largest economy faces up to a sharply ageing population that will leave it short of workers.
The country will gradually extend the retirement age for all men from 60 to 63, for women in white-collar jobs from 55 to 58, and for women in blue-collar work from 50 to 55, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.
The measures were approved by the standing committee of China’s rubber-stamp parliament on Friday. They will take effect in January and be phased in over 15 years in line with the principle of “small-step adjustments”, Xinhua said.
“The world’s demographic structure passed the point of no return twenty to forty years ago. The 2020s are the decade when it all breaks apart.”
Peter Zeihan, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization