S.Korea’s job growth rises in July led by elderly workers
Kyung-Min Kang
5 HOURS AGO
Seoul's Seocho District hosts an employment support event for middle-aged people in June 2024 (Courtesy of News1)
South Korea’s jobs increased in July led by new hires among those in their 60s and older in one of the world's fastest-aging countries. The employment growth was driven by healthcare and welfare, information tech and logistics sectors, while payroll cuts in construction were the biggest in 11 years due to the industry downturn.
The number of employed in Asia’s fourth-largest economy rose by 172,000 on-year to 28.86 million in July, according to data released from Statistics Korea on Wednesday. The employment rate for those aged 15 and above inched up 0.1 percentage point on-year to 63.3%, the highest rate for July since the government collected relevant data in July 1982.
Jobs were added mainly in the healthcare and social welfare field, information technology sector and transportation logistics industry, with on-year gains of 117,000, 82,000 and 65,000 in July, respectively. Employment in the construction field declined 81,000 on-year in July, the biggest loss in 11 years.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
The on-year growth of employment stood out in certain sectors such as transportation and logistics, information tech, science and arts, said an official from the statistics bureau.
The rise in on-year growth in July was partially attributed to a base effect, or a low increase in July 2023, the official added.
Construction field employment declined 81,000 on-year to 2.01 million in July, the biggest drop in the sector since 2013. The industry slowdown and extreme weather such as heat waves and heavy downpours impacted the dramatic cut, according to the statistics bureau.
The employment in the manufacturing industry also declined by 11,000 on-year to 4.47 million in July, particularly a sharp drop in people in their 40s or younger. The sector accounts for 15.6% or the largest share of the overall employment in the country.
Youth employment continued to decline in the country, which logged a 0.76 fertility rate, the average number of children born to each woman over her lifetime, in the first quarter. The employment of those aged 15 to 29 declined by 149,000 on-year in July.
The on-year job growth in those in their 60s and older was 278,000 last month. The on-year increases in their 30s and 50s were 110,000 and 23,000 in the same period, respectively.
The number of business owners without an employee has fallen for 11 straight months in July, with 110,000 less than a year-earlier period.
There were 737,000 unemployed in the country last month, 70,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point on-year to 2.5%.
The number of those economically inactive, who are neither employed nor seeking work, increased by 89,000 or 0.6 percentage point on-year to 16 million.