2.37 Million Respondents Saying 'Just Resting' Amid COVID-19 Employment Shock... Record High Level

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] Last month, amid the reality of the employment shock caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the number of people who said they "just rested" despite being able to work approached 2.37 million. This is the highest level since statistics began.

According to the 'March Employment Trends' released by Statistics Korea on the 17th, the number of 'resting' people among the non-economically active population by age group last month was 2.366 million, an increase of 18.3% compared to the same month last year. In particular, the increase in the 'resting' population by age group was highest among those aged 20-29, while the largest scale was among those aged 60 and over.

Both the number and increase of the 'resting' population are the largest ever since statistics began in 2003. The 'resting' population refers to people who have the ability to work but do not work because they want to rest vaguely without specific reasons such as hospital treatment, childcare, or housework. They are not classified as unemployed, but there is a high possibility that they will fall into unemployment or give up job searching altogether.

In particular, there is a view that a significant portion of the recently increased 'resting' population due to COVID-19 should be regarded as 'potential unemployed.'

The problem is that last month, the 'resting' population increased the most among people in their 20s, who are taking their first steps into society. Last month, the 'resting' population in their 20s (20-29 years old) was 412,000, an increase of 109,000 (35.8%) compared to the same month last year. This is 30,000 more than in January of this year, when there was no COVID-19 impact. It is interpreted that the number of young people giving up on employment is increasing as companies delay or cancel hiring due to the impact of COVID-19. The increase rate was followed by those in their 40s (29.0%), 50s (16.4%), and 60 and over (11.2%).

Usually, the 'resting' population accounts for a large proportion in age groups that finish economic activities due to retirement or resignation, but last month, when the COVID-19 employment shock occurred, the proportion of people in their 20s increased to 17.4%. Compared to the previous year, the proportion of those aged 60 and over decreased by 2.5 percentage points from 42.1% to 39.6%, while the proportion of those in their 20s increased by 2.2 percentage points from 15.2% to 17.4%.

Last month, the number of discouraged job seekers who gave up looking for jobs also increased to the highest level in the past 13 months. The number of discouraged job seekers in March was 582,000, an increase of 44,000 compared to a year ago, the highest since February 2019 (583,000).

Discouraged job seekers refer to people who have the ability and willingness to work and have experience in job searching within the past year but have not searched for jobs in the past four weeks due to involuntary reasons such as labor market conditions. The increase in discouraged job seekers indicates that finding employment is becoming increasingly difficult. In particular, discouraged job seekers had been decreasing year-on-year for six consecutive months from September last year to February but turned to an increase after seven months.

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