Taiwan's workforce continues to age, with the average age of employees in the local job market hitting a record high at the end of 2018, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday.

Data released by the DGBAS showed that the average age of workers in the local job market was 40.1 years old as of the end of 2018, up 0.1 from a year earlier.

Over the past six years, the average age of Taiwan's labor force has increased 1.1 years, the data indicates.

The DGBAS said the 25-44 age group accounted for 58.2 percent of the entire labor force in Taiwan at the end of 2018, down from 58.4 percent a year earlier, while the 45 or older age bracket made up 32.9 percent, up from 32.8 percent a year earlier, and also up 3.3 percentage points from six year earlier.

Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨), deputy director of the DGBAS census department, said the older workforce in Taiwan largely reflects an aging society, where the number of births has been declining.

With more and more people in Taiwan pursuing higher education, 63.2 percent had a college degree or more advanced qualification in 2018, up from 62.5 percent at the end of 2017. Such an uptrend has been seen in recent years, the DGBAS said.

The average number of years spent by employees at a single work place in Taiwan was 6.1 years at the end of 2018, little changed from a year earlier, according to the DGBAS.

The DGBAS said those who worked for the same company for one to three years made up 25.8 percent of the local workforce, the highest level, followed by those who worked for the same employer for less than one year and for 5-10 years (18.5 percent each).

The DGBAS added that on average 7.39 percent of the under 25 age group quit work every month in 2018, the highest level among all age groups, while 3.10 percent of those with a university degree quit their jobs each month on average, the highest among all education groups.

Meanwhile, the number of retirees totaled 101,000 as of the end of 2018, down 3,000 from a year earlier, and accounted for 4.7 percent of those who left the job market, the DGBAS said.

Over the past three years, the number of retirees has topped 100,000 a year, the DGBAS added.