Employment Insurance Subscribers Increased by 390,000... But Half of Jobs Are Funded by Taxes

Ministry of Employment Announces 'November Labor Market Trends'
Public Administration Workers Surge by 205,000
Manufacturing Industry Faces 15 Consecutive Months of Decline

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Last month, the number of employment insurance subscribers increased by nearly 400,000 compared to the same month last year, recovering the growth rate to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the impact of COVID-19 is still ongoing, as the public sector, including government and local government job projects, saw a surge, while the number of subscribers in the accommodation and food service industries experienced a widening decline.

According to the labor market trends for November announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 14th, the number of employment insurance subscribers last month was 14,299,000, an increase of 394,000 (2.8%) compared to the same month last year. This is the largest monthly increase in employment insurance subscribers since December last year (428,000).

The increase in employment insurance subscribers sharply declined from March this year, when the employment shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest, dropping to 155,000 in May, but has since continued to recover.

However, when examining the monthly changes in employment insurance subscribers by industry last month, it is still difficult to say that the employment shock has been fully overcome.

The recovery in the number of employment insurance subscribers was driven by the service industry. The number of employment insurance subscribers in the service industry was 9,896,000, an increase of 411,000 (4.3%) compared to the same month last year.

Among the service industries, only public administration, including government and local government job projects, saw a sharp increase of 205,000 employment insurance subscribers. This means that the large-scale job projects implemented by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are preventing a collapse in employment indicators.

The number of employment insurance subscribers in the accommodation and food service industries decreased by 23,000, with the decline widening compared to October (22,000). Due to a sharp drop in demand for taxis and charter buses, the number of subscribers in the transportation industry also decreased by 9,000.

In contrast, supported by the trend of expanding non-face-to-face consumption, the number of subscribers in non-store retail, including internet shopping, increased by 16,000.

The number of employment insurance subscribers in the manufacturing industry, the backbone of the domestic industry, was 3,535,000 last month, a decrease of 34,000 (1.0%) compared to the same month last year.

The number of employment insurance subscribers in manufacturing has been declining for 15 consecutive months. However, the decrease has been narrowing since July this year (65,000).

The amount of job-seeking benefits paid by the employment insurance fund to support the job search activities of the unemployed was 913.8 billion won last month, an increase of 320.6 billion won (54.0%) compared to the same month last year.

The total amount of job-seeking benefits paid from January to November this year was 10.8 trillion won, far exceeding the total amount paid last year (8.1 trillion won). Last month, there were 90,000 new applicants for job-seeking benefits, and the total number of recipients was 606,000.

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