More than Half of the 1.14 Million Unemployed Last Month Are 'New'

On the 12th, job seekers continued to visit the Seoul Western Employment Welfare Plus Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul. According to the 'July Employment Trends' announced by Statistics Korea on the same day, the number of employed people last month was 27,106,000, a decrease of 277,000 compared to a year ago. This marks the fifth consecutive month of decline, the first time in 11 years since the global financial crisis led to eight consecutive months of decline from January to August 2009. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] More than half of the 1.13 million unemployed last month were newly unemployed.

According to the Statistics Korea's unemployment statistics by job-seeking period on the 16th, the so-called "newly unemployed," whose job-seeking period was less than three months in July, increased by 73,000 from a year ago to 606,000. This is the largest number in 10 years since 2010 (661,000) for the same month.

Since the statistics began in 1999, the number of newly unemployed exceeding 600,000 in July has occurred only three times: in 1999 (805,000) right after the foreign exchange crisis, in 2009 (600,000) when the effects of the global financial crisis remained, and in 2010 (661,000).

It is interpreted that the number of newly unemployed who sought jobs but could not find employment increased due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

The total number of unemployed last month was 1.138 million, an increase of 41,000 from a year ago. This is the highest in 21 years since 1999, right after the foreign exchange crisis.

On the other hand, the so-called "long-term unemployed," whose job-seeking period is six months or longer, recorded 112,000, down 30,000 from a year ago. This is the smallest number in six years since 2014 (79,000) for the month of July.

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