Cheong "Despite Youth Population Decline, Number of Employed Greatly Increases"

Due to stagnant air conditions, the concentration of ultrafine dust reached a 'bad' level on the 26th, causing the Blue House in Seoul to appear hazy. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Park Soo-hyun, Senior Secretary for Public Communication at the Blue House, recently stated regarding employment indicators that the media is emphasizing only certain aspects, and that the youth employment situation has "seen a significant increase in the number of employed persons despite a large decline in population."

On the 6th, Park posted on his Facebook page titled 'The President's Story Not in the Briefing,' saying, "One of the frequent criticisms from the President is why the government cannot explain professional statistics like employment trends more kindly," and made this statement.

President Moon said, "Instead of just listing numbers as ministries have always done, explain the overall picture and context in a way that matches the public's perspective," adding, "If numbers are insufficient, show them with pictures, and show the whole picture, not just parts, so that an accurate diagnosis of our employment situation is possible, and the policy tasks the government must undertake become clear," Park conveyed.

In this regard, Park said, "The reality that most citizens understand the employment situation through media reports often deviates significantly from the overall employment situation and trends," citing last month's employment trends report for the previous year as an example.

Park criticized the media for using headlines such as ▲Employment increased in 2021 but mostly in elderly public jobs ▲Employment cold wave as the economic backbone aged 30-40s decreased by 140,000 ▲Only the elderly increased, youth face employment freeze ▲Increase in discouraged job seekers, those resting, and long-term unemployed, saying, "These headlines can be read as a failure of the Moon Jae-in administration's job policies, which claimed to be a 'job government.'"

He added, "When employment conditions change rapidly after the COVID-19 employment shock as in 2021, it is necessary to judge employment fluctuation trends focusing on monthly indicators and recent data rather than simple monthly averages like 'annual indicators,'" and said, "We must also look at the fact that the number of employed persons in December last year (27.57 million, seasonally adjusted) reached an all-time high, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 peak level (100.2%), and the employment rate for ages 15-64 (67.4%) was the highest ever to grasp the overall trend."

Regarding employment trends for those in their 30s, although the number of employed decreased, the more accurate point is that "the decrease narrowed from 69,000 to 11,000," and "When looking at annual employment numbers, the 30s have seen a decrease every year from 2013 to 2021 for nine consecutive years, but such background explanations are hard to find, and the media almost exclusively uses headlines like 'Employment freeze for those in their 30s,'" he criticized.

Park concluded, "In summary, the youth employment situation has seen a significant increase in the number of employed persons despite a large population decline, with the increase of 266,000 employed youth in December last year being the largest since March 2000, and the annual increase of 115,000 employed persons being the highest since 2000," adding, "The employment rate (45.5%, seasonally adjusted) is the highest since March 2005, and the annual employment rate (44.2%) is the highest since 2005."

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