Number of Health Industry Workers in Q2 Reaches 1.042 Million... 3.6% Increase

New Jobs Created: 11,372 Positions

From April to June this year, the number of workers in the health industry reached 1,042,000, showing a 3.6% increase compared to the same period last year.

The Korea Health Industry Development Institute announced the employment trends in the health industry for the second quarter on the 23rd. Across the health industry, the growth rate of female workers (3.8%) was higher than that of males (3.0%). In particular, the increase rate of female workers in the pharmaceutical industry was relatively high at 5.3%.

Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

By age group, the number of workers aged 60 and over showed a higher growth rate (11.2%) compared to other age groups. On the other hand, the number of young workers (29 years old and under) decreased by 2.0% compared to the same period last year. Regarding length of service, workers with less than 5 years of tenure accounted for the largest share at 71.7% (747,000 people). The proportion of workers with less than 5 years of service in the medical services sector (74.0%) was higher than in other industrial sectors.

By industry, the number of workers in the pharmaceutical industry was recorded at 80,000, a 3.2% increase compared to the same period last year. The growth rate, which had maintained a level of 1-2% since the second quarter of last year, rebounded to the 3% range. The number of workers in the medical device industry increased by 3.8% year-on-year to 61,000, continuing an upward trend despite the decreased demand for in vitro diagnostic devices due to the COVID-19 endemic phase. The number of workers in the cosmetics industry increased by 2.6% year-on-year to 37,000, the highest growth rate in the past three years. The increase in the number of workers in workplaces with '30 to less than 300 employees' by 6.4% compared to the same period last year was analyzed to have contributed to the growth in the cosmetics industry workforce. The number of workers in the medical services industry (including hospitals and clinics) increased by 3.7% year-on-year to 863,000, accounting for 82.9% of all health industry workers. The growth rate of workers in ‘Hanbang hospitals’ was the highest at 11.8%.

A total of 11,372 new jobs were created in the health industry. The medical services sector, which includes health and medical workers, accounted for the largest share with 10,060 jobs (88.5%). This was followed by pharmaceuticals (511 jobs), medical devices (483 jobs), and cosmetics (318 jobs). By occupation, new jobs for 'health and medical workers' were the highest at 4,272 (37.6%). Nurses (2,580 jobs, 22.7%), doctors, Korean medicine doctors, and dentists (1,180 jobs, 10.4%), medical technicians, therapists, and rehabilitation specialists (1,066 jobs, 9.4%), and simple manufacturing workers (393 jobs, 3.5%) followed.

Han Dong-woo, head of the Health Industry Innovation Planning Group, said, "Employment in the health industry in the second quarter showed a higher growth rate compared to all industries, with significant increases in employment in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors," adding, "Close monitoring and analysis are needed for sectors showing a decline in employment."

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