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deeply understand the great significance of delaying the statutory retirement age reform

qiu chaoyi

people's daily (page 07, september 14, 2024)

on september 13, the standing committee of the national people's congress voted to pass a decision on the implementation of a gradual delay in the statutory retirement age. the third plenary session of the 18th cpc central committee, the fifth plenary session of the 18th cpc central committee, the fifth plenary session of the 19th cpc central committee, the 20th cpc national congress, and the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee all made arrangements for delaying the statutory retirement age. the "decision" of the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee proposed: "according to the principles of voluntariness and flexibility, the reform of gradually delaying the statutory retirement age should be steadily and orderly promoted."

at present, my country is firmly promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation with chinese-style modernization. chinese-style modernization is a modernization with a huge population scale. it contains development advantages, but also brings difficulties and challenges. we must further deepen reforms in an all-round way, continuously liberate and develop social productivity, and stimulate and enhance social vitality. based on the development and changes in my country's economic, social, and demographic situation and the increasingly diversified needs of workers, establishing a retirement age system that is adapted to them is such an important reform that concerns the overall development situation. we must look at the overall situation and the long-term, and correctly understand and grasp the great significance of the reform of delaying the statutory retirement age.

from the perspective of the retirement age system, delaying the statutory retirement age reform is an objective requirement for economic and social development. the current statutory retirement age in my country is 60 years old for male employees and 55 and 50 years old for female employees, which was determined in the 1950s based on my country's basic national conditions at the time. over the past 70 years, my country's economic and social development has undergone great changes, especially the aging of the population has brought about many impacts. the original statutory retirement age is difficult to match the current basic national conditions, and it is also difficult to adapt to the needs of economic and social development in the next stage.

from the perspective of human resource development, as the first factor to promote economic development, my country's human resource development and utilization faces a series of new situations and changes. on the one hand, the average years of education of my country's new labor force has increased from 8 years in 1982 to 14 years in 2023. under the condition that the original statutory retirement age remains unchanged, the increase in years of education means that the time for workers to participate in work will be postponed and the average working years will be shortened, which will lead to problems such as reduced human capital utilization. on the other hand, my country's population age structure has shifted from "young type" to "old type", bringing about changes such as a decline in the size of the working-age population and an aging age structure. it is necessary to appropriately adjust the statutory retirement age according to these changes, strengthen the development and utilization of human resources, increase the supply of labor, and thus stabilize the labor participation rate, promote the improvement of total factor productivity, and lay a solid foundation for high-quality economic and social development.

judging from the workers' choice of retirement time, delaying the statutory retirement age reform is an effective measure to adapt to differentiated demands. at present, there are 297 million elderly people aged 60 and above in my country, with an average life expectancy of 78.6 years. with the improvement of life expectancy and health level, the enthusiasm of some elderly people to continue to participate in society is also increasing. for example, in recent years, the education, finance and other departments have organized the "silver age lecture program", attracting many retired teachers to participate in teaching and research activities, which effectively serve the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and provide a stage for them to give full play to their experience, knowledge and skills. it can be seen that some elderly people still have a strong desire to display their talents and create value. in many fields such as science, education, culture, health, traditional skills, public welfare and charity, supporting willing, capable and qualified elderly people, especially young elderly people, to continue working can help more elderly people with "long" to achieve their old age.

on the whole, the steady and orderly advancement of the gradual delay of the statutory retirement age reform is not only people-oriented and fully respects the wishes of the people, better meets the diverse demands of workers for retirement timing, but also optimizes the system design according to the times and circumstances. it is conducive to improving the potential and quality of labor supply, promoting the transformation of my country's demographic dividend into a human resource dividend, and supporting chinese-style modernization with high-quality population development.