Number of Employed Rises by 63,000 in June...Youth Employment Rate Falls for 26th Consecutive Month (Update)

Last month, the number of employed people increased by 63,000 compared to a year earlier, reversing course and returning to growth after just one month. However, jobs in the manufacturing sector declined for the 24th consecutive month, and the youth employment downturn persisted.

According to the "June Employment Trends" released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on July 15, the number of employed people aged 15 and older was 29,154,000 last month, an increase of 63,000 compared to the same month last year. The number of employed had decreased by 40,000 in May, but rebounded to growth within a month.

This figure had continued to register increases of around 100,000 to 200,000 from January to March this year, but the growth sharply slowed to 74,000 in April, and then in May, it turned negative for the first time in 17 months.

The employment rate for those aged 15 and older was 63.4%, down 0.2 percentage points from the same month last year. For those aged 15 to 64, the employment rate also dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 70.2%.

Yonhap News Agency

By industry, the number of employed in the manufacturing sector dropped by 97,000, marking the 24th consecutive monthly decline. However, the decrease was smaller than in May, when 140,000 jobs were lost. The construction sector saw a decline of 67,000 jobs, continuing a 26-month decreasing trend. The extent of this decline was the highest since November last year, when 131,000 jobs were lost.

In contrast, employment increased in the healthcare and social welfare services industry (214,000), as well as in arts, sports and leisure-related services (55,000), and transport and warehousing (48,000).

By age group, sluggish youth employment also continued. The number of young workers (aged 15-29) decreased by 197,000 compared to a year ago. The youth employment rate dropped by 1.7 percentage points to 43.9%, marking a 26-month downward streak. The youth unemployment rate rose by 0.9 percentage points to 7.0%.

The total number of unemployed people stood at 834,000, an increase of 10,000, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged year-on-year at 2.8%. The economically inactive population increased by 181,000 to 16,009,000. Among this group, those classified as "resting" increased by 5,000.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.