Persistent COVID-19 Employment Cliff... Unemployment Rate Hits Highest in 21 Years

Unemployed Increase for 6 Consecutive Months, Employed Decrease for 8 Consecutive Months
Only Employment Among the Elderly Rises Due to Public Jobs

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[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Last month, the number of unemployed people increased by more than 160,000. This is the largest increase in unemployment since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The unemployment rate soared to its highest level in 21 years.

According to the 'October Employment Trends' recently released by Statistics Korea, the number of unemployed reached 1,028,000, an increase of 164,000 compared to a year ago. Last month's unemployment rate was 3.7%, up 0.7 percentage points from the same period last year. Except for the same rate in October 2000, this is the highest in 21 years since October 1999 (5.0%), right after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis.

The expanded unemployment rate, known as Employment Supplementary Indicator 3 (ESI3), which reflects the perceived unemployment rate, rose to 13.2%, up 2.6 percentage points from the same month last year. In particular, the youth unemployment rate reached 24.4%, increasing by 3.9 percentage points. This is the highest for the same month since the related statistics began in January 2015.

On the other hand, the number of employed people decreased by 421,000 to 27,088,000, marking the largest decline in six months since April (-476,000). Employment has decreased for eight consecutive months following March (-195,000), April (-476,000), May (-392,000), June (-352,000), July (-277,000), August (-274,000), and September (-392,000).

Only employment among those aged 60 and over increased by 375,000, while the rest decreased. Employment decreased by 240,000 in their 30s, 210,000 in their 20s, 192,000 in their 40s, and 114,000 in their 50s. In particular, among the youth (ages 15-29), employment fell by 176,000, and the employment rate dropped by 2.0 percentage points.

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said regarding these employment indicators, "We are seriously aware that the difficulties in the employment situation have continued for about eight months due to the COVID-19 crisis," adding, "We will steadily implement the employment market stabilization measures that have been prepared so far."

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