A job-seeker tries an AI-powered job interview experience at a job fair held at Coex in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on July 15.NEWS1
The number of employed people in Korea rose for the second consecutive month, but the job market for young people remained bleak. The youth employment rate fell for a 27th straight month and the youth unemployment rate posted its biggest increase in five years and six months.
The number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at nearly 29.14 million last month, up 108,000, or 0.4 percent, from the same month a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics’ July employment trend report Wednesday.
The number of employed people fell by 40,000 in May before returning to growth in June and July.
The increase, however, failed to keep pace with population growth. The population aged 15 and older grew by 257,000 last month, while the increase in the number of employed people was less than half that figure.
As a result, the employment rate for people aged 15 and older — the proportion of the population in that age group who are employed — fell 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 63.3 percent, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline.
The number of unemployed people rose by 50,000 to 776,000, while the unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage point to 2.6 percent.
The weakness was particularly pronounced among young people.
The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 fell by 191,000 from a year earlier. This marked the 45th consecutive month of decline since November 2022.
An employment support center at a university in Seoul on July 23YONHAP
The youth employment rate also fell 1.6 percentage points to 44.2 percent, extending its decline to a 27th consecutive month since May 2024.
The youth unemployment rate jumped 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 6.8 percent. The rate was the highest since July 2022, when it also stood at 6.8 percent, while the increase was the largest in five years and six months since January 2021, when it rose 1.8 percentage points.
The government attributed the rise in the unemployment rate to an increase in the number of young people seeking work amid expanded hiring in the public sectors. The unemployment rate measures the proportion of the economically active population who looked for work but failed to find a job. This means young people who had previously been economically inactive, including those classified as "resting," are counted as unemployed once they begin looking for work unless they successfully find a job.
Those classified as "resting" are young people who are not currently working or looking for a job and report that they are simply "resting" in the Data Ministry’s surveys. They are distinguished from the unemployed because they are not actively seeking work.
"There was a civil service examination during the survey week, and public-sector hiring also increased," said Bin Hyun-jun, director general of social statistics at the Data Ministry. "With the number of new job openings rising for four consecutive months, the unemployment rate increased, particularly among young people."
A student checks job posts on a bulletin board at an employment support center at a university in Seoul on Aug. 12.YONHAP
More young people appear to have moved out of the "resting" category and begun looking for work, but the number of jobs available has not grown enough to absorb them.
"[Young people's] willingness to look for work appears to have increased overall, but there have not been enough jobs to meet that demand," said Kim Tae-woong, director of the Human Resources Policy Division at the Ministry of Finance and Economy. "If we combine people in their 20s and 30s who are 'resting,' preparing for employment or unemployed, the figure remains at around 1.7 million overall. That shows just how difficult employment conditions are for young people."
"Young people are caught in a vicious cycle in which they need experience to get a job, but they need a job to gain experience," Kim added. "More recently, the situation in the Middle East has further reduced the economy's overall capacity to create jobs, adding a cyclical factor to the problem and leaving young people facing a 'triple burden.' We are preparing extraordinary measures."
The government plans to announce measures to revive youth employment later this month. The package is expected to include expanding work force training for advanced industries such as semiconductors and AI; increasing jobs and work-experience opportunities in both the private and public sectors; and strengthening incentives at each stage of entering the labor market, including job searching, recruitment and starting employment.
BY NAM SOO-HYOUN [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
