About 68 percent of senior citizens in China intend to return to the workplace after retirement, revealed a report by Chinese recruitment website 51job.com in October 2022.

China's National Population Census in 2020 showed that 8.8 percent of the employed population, or about 66 million people, were aged 60 and above. 

These figures show the willingness of older people in returning to work.

The occupations of these re-employed older adults vary from security guards, shop assistants, engineers, researchers, and so on, said Long Xi, deputy director at the Talent Department of the Senior Talent Information Center of the China National Committee on Aging. He said they share the common characteristics of being healthy and energetic, they are known as "lively elderly people".

Wang Wenlong, owner of a restaurant in a Beijing hutong alley, is 60 years old. After his retirement, he ran a restaurant selling pork hocks with four employees. He could sell at least 100 pork hocks per day. Wang mentioned that learning new skills is so important, which is why he operates a social media account on TikTok to sell pork hocks. "I enjoy this working lifestyle, I feel comfortable", Wang said.

Uncle Sun, a 64-year-old man, is a researcher who was rehired after retirement. His purpose in returning to work is just to contribute the knowledge he has acquired to society. "Earning money is secondary, the most important thing is to make use of my ability", Sun said.

Aunty Du, a 67-year-old influencer, operates a social media account on Little Red Book, also known as Chinese Instagram, and gathered over 10,000 followers. Du said she wants to communicate that if older persons can accept new technology and other new things, they can also become very trendy. Older people have advantages because they have accumulated decades of work experience which is very useful, she added.

These stories further evidence that many seniors have a strong willingness to continue to work and are motivated by a variety of reasons. The 51job.com report showed that 46.7 percent of pensioners return to the workplace to realize their personal and social values, and another 19 percent hope to continue pursuing career development.

In China, ensuring quality lives for the aged is essentially a financial problem, said Chen Wenhui, former vice chairman of China's National Council for Social Security Fund. The ratio of pensions to GDP in China is low, and it is necessary to make substantial investments, he said. Therefore, re-employment of the elderly will ease this financial pressure.

China's population aged 60 years or older surged to over 280 million, accounting for 19.8 percent of the total population, by the end of 2022, official data showed. As China's aging population grows, more and more elderly people are anticipated to join the workforce in the future.