While Hong Kong comes second in the world's longevity rankings - 86.1 years for women, after Japan, and 79.8 years for men, after Qatar - the city offers few opportunities for senior citizens who are fit and want to work. Government statistics show only 155,000 people aged 60 and older remain in the workforce - about 13 per cent of the 1.23 million people 60 and over. This compares with about 20 to 50 per cent of the elderly population working in developed economies.

In the United States, a fifth of those in their 70s are still employed, according to the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies at Lingnan University. Institute director Professor Alfred Chan Cheung-ming said the reality in Hong Kong was much worse, as most elderly workers were 65 or less, which meant only about 5 per cent of those who could work were 65 or older.

Chan and Ernest Chui Wing-tak, director of the Sau Po Centre on Ageing at the University of Hong Kong, attribute the low elderly employment rate to the reluctance of companies to hire retirees and a culture that does not encourage elderly employment. They said the government-dictated retirement age of 60 set a guideline for companies. A lack of age discrimination laws and a shortage of programmes promoting elderly employment could explain why senior citizens found it difficult to get work.