Workforce to peak in 2013

BEIJING - The number of Chinese who are in their working years will peak in 2013 and then decline afterward, according to a recent report by Allianz, a leading German financial group.

That finding provides further evidence that the Chinese population is getting older on average and that good reasons exist to loosen the country's family-planning policy.

The national policy, which has been in place since the late 1970s, restricts most urban couples to having a single child.