South Korea’s job growth rises in July led by elderly workers

South Korea’s job numbers grew 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 the healthcare, welfare, information tech and logistics sectors, while payroll cuts in construction were the largest in 11 years amid an 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 Wednesday by Statistics Korea. The employment rate for those aged 15 and older inched up 0.1 percentage point on-year to 63.3%, the highest rate for July since the government began collecting relevant data in 1982.

Jobs were added mainly in the fields of healthcare and social welfare, information technology and transportation logistics, with on-year gains of 117,000, 82,000 and 65,000 in July, respectively. 

The on-year growth of employment stood out in certain sectors such as transportation and logistics, information tech, science and the arts, said an official from the statistics office.

The rise in on-year growth in July was attributed in part to a base effect, or a low increase in July 2023, the official added.

Employment in construction declined 81,000 on-year to 2.01 million in July, the sector's biggest drop in 11 years. An industry slowdown combined with extreme weather such as heat waves and heavy rains impacted the industry, according to the statistics bureau.

Employment in the manufacturing sector declined by 11,000 on-year to 4.47 million in July, with an especially sharp drop among those in their 40s or younger. The sector accounts for a 15.6% share of 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. Employment among those ages 15 to 29 declined by 149,000 on-year in July.

On-year job growth among those in their 60s and older was 278,000 last month. The increases among those in their 30s and 50s were 110,000 and 23,000 over the same period, respectively.

The number of business owners with no employees has fallen for 11 straight months in July, with 110,000 fewer than the year-earlier period.

There were 737,000 unemployed last month, 70,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point on-year to 2.5%.

The number deemed economically inactive, who are neither employed nor seeking work, increased by 89,000 or 0.6 percentage point on-year to 16 million.

Write to Kyung-Min Kang at kkm1026@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.