'Among 100 Employed in 2019, 16 Changed Jobs'... Slight Decrease Compared to Previous Year

Statistics Korea '2019 Job Mobility Statistics'
Two out of Three Movers Move to Higher Wage Jobs
Under 30 Age Group Has Highest Mobility Rate at 20.9%

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] In 2019, job movers who changed workplaces accounted for about 16% of all registered employed persons. The mobility rate was higher among younger age groups.

According to the '2019 Job Mobility Statistics' released by Statistics Korea on the 8th, the number of registered employed persons identified based on administrative data such as the four major social insurances was 24,358,000 in 2019, an increase of 521,000 (2.2%) from 23,837,000 the previous year. Among them, 3,876,000 people changed jobs in 2019, a 1.7% decrease from 3,944,000 the previous year. The mobility rate, the ratio of movers to total registered employed persons, was 15.9%, down 0.6 percentage points from 16.5% the previous year. Those who continued working at the same workplace numbered 16,571,000, accounting for 68% of the total, an increase of 3.6% from 16,001,000 the previous year.

The number of people who were registered employed in 2018 but became unregistered in 2019 was 3,391,000, a decrease of 43,000 (1.2%) from the previous year. However, since unpaid family workers and other non-institutional workers are excluded from registered employed persons, it is difficult to conclude that all of them were unemployed.

By age group, the mobility rate was highest among those under 30 at 20.9%, followed by those in their 50s (15.2%) and 30s (14.9%). Although the mobility rate was highest among those under 30, who tend to move to stable jobs after finishing their studies and searching for employment, it is notable that the mobility rate among those in their 30s was not low. This is because the 30s age group is the only one among all age groups experiencing a decrease in employment insurance subscribers. The government repeatedly explains that the number of people in their 30s is decreasing due to demographic structure, in other words, the denominator is shrinking, which causes a decrease in employment insurance subscribers in their 30s. People in their 50s and 60s often move to new jobs after retirement.

The entry rate of new registered employed persons was highest among those under 30 (30.6%), followed by those aged 60 and over (21.1%) and those in their 30s (11.8%). It is noteworthy that the entry rate for those aged 60 and over, who have passed retirement age, is not low. On the other hand, among those who continued working at the same workplace, the proportion of people in their 40s was the largest at 26.6%. By gender, the mobility rate for men was 16.4%, higher than 15.3% for women. Conversely, the entry rate was higher for women at 19.2% than for men at 13.7%. By length of service, the mobility rate was highest at 25.5% for workers with less than one year of tenure. The shorter the period of employment at a workplace, the higher the mobility rate.

Among all movers, 67.5% moved to jobs with higher wages than before, but 31.7% moved to jobs with lower wages. In particular, among those in their 50s, the proportion of people whose wages decreased after changing jobs was 35.2%, the highest among all age groups.

Among industries with more than one million registered employed persons, the mobility rate was highest in construction (35.0%), the job retention rate was highest in public administration (81.0%), and the entry rate was highest in accommodation and food services (28.9%).

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