Regular Workers Earned "4.05 Million Won," Non-Regular Workers "2.11 Million Won" (Roundup)

Results of the Economically Active Population Survey by Employment Type
Non-regular workers total 8.67 million... a record high

This year, the average monthly wage gap between non-regular and regular workers reached 1.94 million won, the widest since statistics began being compiled.

An office worker looks out at the scenery. File photo unrelated to the article. The Asia Business Daily DB

The Ministry of Data and Statistics said on October 21, in its "Results of the August 2026 Supplementary Survey on Employment by Type of Work," that as of August, there were 8.671 million non-regular workers, up 103,000 from the same period a year earlier, and 13.855 million regular workers, up 10,000.

This means that most of the increase in wage workers (113,000) came from non-regular workers (103,000). The number of non-regular workers was the highest since related statistics began being compiled in 2003.

Non-regular workers accounted for 38.5% of the 22.526 million wage workers, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier. The share surpassed the previous record of 38.4%, set in August 2021, to reach an all-time high.

Workers aged 60 or older accounted for 36.7% of all non-regular workers, up 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier and the largest share of any age group. There were 1.29 million non-regular workers aged 70 or older, an increase of 85,000 and 106,000 more than the 1.184 million non-regular workers in their 40s. The number of non-regular workers in their 30s and 50s increased by 39,000 and 11,000, respectively, while it fell among those aged 29 or younger (down 64,000) and those in their 40s (down 20,000).

Kim Rak-hyun, head of the Employment Statistics Division at the Ministry of Data and Statistics, explained, "The population is declining among young people aged 15 to 29 and people in their 40s, so there is a baseline effect that reduces the number of employed people. The difficult employment situation itself among young people also seems to have contributed in part to the decline in employed non-regular workers."

The industry with the largest number of non-regular workers was health and social welfare, with 1.867 million, accounting for 21.5% of the total. In particular, the number of non-regular workers in health and social welfare increased by 112,000 from a year earlier.

By type of work, the number of contingent workers increased by 187,000 to 6.035 million, while the number of part-time workers rose by 152,000 to 4.382 million. By contrast, the number of non-typical workers fell by 48,000 to 1.786 million. Part-time workers accounted for 50.5% of all non-regular workers, the highest share since statistics began being compiled. Part-time workers are those whose scheduled working hours are even one hour shorter than those of workers doing the same type of work at the same workplace.

By gender, the number of female non-regular workers increased by 46,000 from a year earlier to 4.963 million, while the number of male non-regular workers rose by 57,000 to 3.708 million. Women accounted for 57.2% of all non-regular workers, down 0.2 percentage points.

The average monthly wage of non-regular workers over the most recent three months (June to August) was 2.112 million won, up 24,000 won from last year. The average monthly wage of regular workers was 4.052 million won, up 156,000 won. Wages for both groups were at their highest levels since statistics began being compiled in 2004. However, because regular workers saw a larger increase, the wage gap widened by 132,000 won, from 1.808 million won last year to 1.94 million won this year.

"Part-time work is not full-time work, so wage levels are lower," Kim said. "The increase in the number of workers aged 60 or older among non-regular workers also had an impact."

Excluding part-time workers, the average monthly wage of non-regular workers rose by 61,000 won to 3.098 million won. In this case, the wage gap with regular workers was 954,000 won, with non-regular workers earning 76.5% of regular workers' wages. The share of non-regular workers who chose their type of work voluntarily was 68.0%, up 0.2 percentage points from last year. The reasons for their voluntary choice were, in order, "satisfaction with working conditions" (59.9%), "a stable job" (21.7%), "changing jobs, etc." (11.4%), and "income commensurate with effort or the ability to adjust working hours, etc." (7.0%).

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