'Temporary Workers, Women, and Low-Educated Individuals' Most Affected by COVID-19 Employment Shock

On the 13th, unemployment benefit applicants are receiving explanations from officials at the Seoul Employment Welfare Plus Center unemployment benefit briefing session in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The employment shock caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has been concentrated among vulnerable groups such as temporary workers, women, and those with low educational attainment.

According to the 'April Employment Trends' released by Statistics Korea on the 14th, among wage workers, the number of regular workers increased by 400,000 (2.9%) compared to the previous month, but temporary workers with employment contracts of less than one year and daily workers decreased by 587,000 (-12.0%) and 195,000 (-13.7%), respectively. The decrease in the number of temporary workers was the largest in 30 years and 3 months since comparable statistics began in January 1990, exceeding the previous largest decline during the IMF financial crisis (447,000) by 140,000.

The employment conditions for women also worsened compared to men. When looking at the decrease in total employment by gender, male employment decreased by 183,000, while female employment dropped by 293,000. In terms of proportion, they accounted for 38.4% and 61.6%, respectively.

By educational level, those with a middle school diploma or less experienced the greatest job losses. Although the number of unemployed in April decreased by 73,000 compared to the same period last year, the number of unemployed with middle school education or less increased by 48,000 following a rise of 54,000 in the previous month. On the other hand, the unemployed with high school diplomas and college degrees or higher decreased by 25,000 and 96,000, respectively, marking nine and ten consecutive months of decline. Eun Soon-hyun, Director of the Social Statistics Bureau at Statistics Korea, diagnosed that "young people, women, and temporary/daily workers seem to have been more affected by COVID-19" in relation to employment indicators.

The size of the 'non-economically active population' also increased by the largest margin since statistics began in 2000. The non-economically active population in April surged by 831,000 compared to the same month last year, reaching 16,991,000. This is the largest increase since June 2000. The number of people who have the ability to work but chose to 'rest' also sharply increased by 437,000 to 2,408,000 compared to the previous year.

The number of temporarily absent workers who are currently not working but expected to return also rose to 1,485,000, marking over one million for two consecutive months following 1,607,000 in the previous month, and is being pointed out as a trigger for the unemployment shock. Temporarily absent workers are defined as employed persons who are on leave for specific reasons but are scheduled to return. This includes both paid and unpaid leave workers; if the unpaid leave period exceeds six months, they are counted as non-economically active population, but before that, they are considered employed. If the COVID-19 situation prolongs, these workers could become unemployed at any time, and since some are on unpaid leave, their status is not significantly different from actual unemployment.

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