The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Feb. 1 that it will provide 1,152,000 senior jobs in 2026. It is the largest number ever, more than 50,000 above the previous year. By type, there are 709,000 public interest activity jobs, 65,000 community business team jobs and 197,000 senior capability utilization jobs. Of these, the 197,000 senior capability utilization jobs will be concentrated in the care, safety and environment fields.
The senior capability utilization type is a reorganization of the former social service type. Along with the name change, the content of the work has changed. Duties newly added in 2026 include deployment to integrated care home visit services and food bank management. Older adults will become the hands of care that visit homes, and will staff the counters that distribute food.
Pay for kindergarten senior care workers was presented at 900,000 won a month. How working hours and the term of service are combined will only be known once the final notice is issued. Putting the pay level up front in the subtitle is a signal that this work is beginning to be treated as labor counted as income.
Gwangju City has allocated 934.8 billion won to the senior welfare field for 2026. The "2026 Age-Friendly City Implementation Plan," drawn up as of Jan. 25, contains 55 detailed tasks across five areas of jobs, culture and leisure, care, health and long-term care, and living environment, five of which are new tasks. It puts 155.1 billion won into jobs, providing work for 36,440 people. Of these, 26,479 are in the public interest activity type and 6,083 in the social service type.
The same plan also records the scale of those on the receiving side of care. Emergency safety and security service equipment will be installed in 8,072 households including seniors living alone and people with disabilities, and 3,987 people will use free meals at senior restaurants and lunchbox delivery. On top of this, a "housing infrastructure-linked care service" that combines housing, medical care and care in one package will be pursued from this year. For middle-aged and older residents, tailored support such as "Bitgoeul 50+ Jobs" continues at a scale of 964 million won.
In Yeongam, South Jeolla Province, this approach has taken the form of one floor of a building. Yeongam Senior Club, selected in the Ministry of Health and Welfare's open call for senior-friendly companies, has opened and begun operating the second branch of "The Gichan Bapsang Premium" on the third floor of the Samho Hanmaeum Hall. It has 132 seats over 515.9 square meters. With matching investment from HD Hyundai Samho and Yeongam County's hometown love fund, 19 older workers are employed there.
Operations are handled by "Jeongseong Green," a social cooperative established by Yeongam Senior Club. The first branch, which opened earlier in Yeongam-eup, serves free meals every day to 20-30 seniors living in a housing complex for older residents. It delivers lunchboxes to vulnerable groups including people with disabilities. The people who cook the meals and the people who receive them are older residents of the same neighborhood.
There is a reason the central government and local governments have put jobs together with care and safety in their 2026 senior policies. Demand for care keeps growing, and the workforce to meet that demand is short. As the older population has grown, so has the number of older people who are healthy and able to work. Policy is looking for an answer at the point where the two curves meet.
Questions remain to be checked. As can be seen in Gwangju City still allocating 6,083 places under the name "social service type," it takes time for the reorganized type names to be sorted out in local plans. How many people will actually be placed in the care and safety fields and in what duties, and how the safety and training of participating seniors will be managed, can also only be confirmed once detailed guidelines are released. Entrusting care requires preparation to match.
Applications to take part in senior jobs are accepted at senior job implementing agencies in each city, county and district, the Korean Senior Citizens Association, and senior clubs. It is more accurate to check directly with the implementing agency in one's area about the type of interest and the recruitment period. On the third floor of Yeongam's Samho Hanmaeum Hall, the 132-seat restaurant opens each morning starting this month. The name tags of the 19 people standing at the cooking counter read "staff."
