Almost 60 percent of businesses responding to a labor ministry survey said they employed people who were 60 or older in 2008, reflecting a new law requiring that employment of seniors be increased in stages, the ministry said Thursday.
The survey covered 9,700 business establishments with five or more regular employees last September and drew replies from 6,465 of them, garnering a response rate of 66.5 percent.
The survey found that 59.4 percent of employers had people aged 60 or older on their payroll last year, up 8.9 points from the previous survey in 2004, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said. Seniors accounted for 10.0 percent of full-time employees, up 2.4 points.
Among other findings, 50.2 percent of the responding businesses hired employees aged 60 to 64, 26.9 percent hired workers aged 65 to 69, and 15.6 percent hired people aged 70 or older.