Youth Perceived Unemployment Rate at 20%... Hong Nam-gi's Self-Praise Claiming "There Were Achievements"

Employment Trends in March

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seonhee] Despite the strong spread of the Omicron virus, the number of employed people increased by more than 1 million per month on average in the first quarter, continuing the trend of employment recovery. This marks 13 consecutive months of increase since March last year. However, the perceived unemployment rate among the youth remains high at around 20%, and most of the increased employment was concentrated in the 50s and 60s age groups.

According to the 'March Employment Trends' released by Statistics Korea on the 13th, the number of employed people last month was 27,754,000, an increase of 831,000 compared to a year ago. This is the highest for the same month since March 2002 (864,000). The employment rate for those aged 15 and over rose by 1.6 percentage points from a year ago to 61.4%, the highest for the same month since monthly statistics began in July 1982. Gong Mi-sook, Director of the Social Statistics Bureau at Statistics Korea, explained, "Continued export boom and the non-face-to-face digital transformation of industries have increased the number of employed people and decreased the number of unemployed, sustaining the employment growth trend."

However, the increase in the number of employed people last month slowed somewhat compared to January (1,135,000) and February (1,037,000). While the overall employment recovery trend continues, accommodation and food service businesses, which were severely affected by COVID-19, decreased by 20,000, and wholesale and retail trade also decreased by 32,000. Employment in the financial and insurance sectors, where non-face-to-face digitalization is accelerating, decreased by 25,000.

On the other hand, supported by the export boom last month, the number of employed people in manufacturing, which had been stagnant for a while, increased by 100,000. This is the largest increase since January 2018 (16,000). By age group, about 71% (589,000) of the total increase in employed people was accounted for by those in their 50s and 60s or older. The number of employed youth (aged 15-29) was only 177,000.

This employment trend report is the last announcement made during the Moon Jae-in administration, which advocated a "job government." Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, stated, "Looking back on the government's job policies, creating quality jobs was the top national agenda, and we responded with full force," adding, "1.27 million jobs were created over the past five years." However, he also diagnosed, "The employment situation perceived by our youth remains difficult."

In fact, there is an evaluation that efforts to create quality jobs for young people entering society were insufficient. The expanded unemployment rate, which shows the actual perceived unemployment rate among youth, still stands at 20.1%. Although the total number of employed people increased, the population who have the ability to work but are not working for specific reasons, classified as 'resting,' actually increased among the 20s and 30s age groups.

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