Employment Boom Maintained by 'Senior Jobs and Seol Special'... Worst 40s Job Market in 7 Years

Statistics Korea Announces January Employment Trends

Newly Employed Increased by 568,000... 89% of Them Are Aged 60 and Over

Labor Force Participation Rate and Employment Rate of People in Their 40s Hit Lowest Since January 2013

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyunjung, Joo Sangdon] The number of employed people increased by more than 560,000 in January this year, marking the largest increase in 5 years and 5 months. However, this is attributed to the early Lunar New Year effect compared to the previous year, a base effect, and the government's increase in senior citizen jobs, leading to analyses that it is still far from qualitative growth. The employment rate of people in their 40s, the economic backbone, fell to the lowest level since January 2013, indicating that the job deterioration trend continues.

According to Statistics Korea on the 12th, the number of employed people in January this year was 26.89 million, an increase of 568,000 (2.2%) compared to the same month last year. This is the highest since August 2014 (670,000). It is the first time since July-September 2014 that newly employed people increased by more than 500,000 for two consecutive months. However, the statistics do not reflect the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia).

Eun Soonhyun, Director of the Social Statistics Bureau at Statistics Korea, explained, "The increase in jobs in January this year is due to a mixed effect of the Lunar New Year holiday special, the base effect, and the government's senior job projects. In the case of senior jobs, they were reflected from February last year, but this year they were reflected from January."

In fact, most of the newly employed are concentrated among those aged 60 and over. The number of employed people aged 60 and over increased by a record 507,000 from 3.99 million in January last year to 4.497 million in January this year. This accounts for 89.3% of all new jobs being senior jobs. On the other hand, the employment situation for people in their 40s did not escape the worsening trend. Newly employed people in their 40s (-84,000) were the only age group to decrease. The labor force participation rate (79.7%) and employment rate (78.1%) of people in their 40s also fell to the lowest levels since January 2013 (78.8% and 77.2%, respectively).

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By industry, health and social welfare services (189,000; 9.4%), transportation and warehousing (92,000; 6.5%), and accommodation and food services (86,000; 3.8%) increased. Notably, manufacturing, which had seen a decrease in new jobs for 21 consecutive months since April 2018, showed a slight increase (8,000). On the other hand, wholesale and retail trade (-94,000; -2.5%), information and communication (-35,000; -3.9%), and finance and insurance (-32,000; -3.9%) decreased.

Director Eun said, "Compared to January last year, when jobs for people in their 40s decreased by 166,000, the reduction has significantly lessened, and the rebound in manufacturing is positive. However, since the trend of job reduction in the 40s continues, I understand that the government is closely monitoring the situation and preparing policy alternatives."

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