June Workers at 'Stable' Level... New Entrants Showing Declining Trend

Ministry of Employment and Labor Business Workforce Survey Announcement

Number of Workers in June: 20,122,000
Accommodation and Food Service Workers Decrease by 2.5%

The number of workers employed at business establishments last month increased by a low single-digit percentage compared to the same month last year, essentially remaining steady. The number of new hires decreased. Since March, a downward trend has been observed, and last month, the decline was particularly pronounced among regular employees.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of the "June 2024 Business Establishment Labor Survey" on the 30th.

Office workers commuting near City Hall Station in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

In this survey, the number of workers at business establishments with at least one employee was recorded at 20,122,000 as of the last business day of June. This represents an increase of 0.6% (128,000 people) compared to the same month last year. The employment growth rate has fallen to the 1% range since August last year and continued to decline, showing a growth rate in the 0% range since May.

By employment status, the number of regular employees (16,828,000), temporary and daily workers (2,030,000), and other workers (1,264,000) all increased compared to the same month last year. The category of other workers includes those who receive no fixed salary but earn service fees or commissions based on sales performance, or those who work without pay to acquire job skills.

By industry, the number of workers increased in health and social welfare services (2,390,000), professional, scientific, and technical services (1,319,000), and business facility management, business support, and rental services (1,251,000). Among all industries, manufacturing?which accounts for the largest share of workers (about 19%)?recorded a 0.1% increase to 3,765,000 workers.

Conversely, industries such as accommodation and food services (1,191,000), education services (1,624,000), and wholesale and retail trade (2,291,000) showed a decline. In accommodation and food services, the number of workers decreased by 2.5% (30,000 people) compared to the same month last year, representing a significant drop.

Excluding other workers, both the number of new hires (906,000) and the number of job changers (923,000) decreased. In particular, the number of new hires fell by 5.6% (54,000 people) compared to the same month last year, a larger decrease than the 1.6% decline in job changers. The new hire rate also dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 4.8%.

The number of new hires has been declining since March. By reason for hiring, recruitment in June decreased by 5.4% compared to the same month last year, and other hires?including transfers between headquarters and branches and reinstatements?declined by 9.2%. By employment status, the decrease in new hires was more pronounced among regular employees (-8.7%) than among temporary and daily workers (-3.5%).

The average monthly total wage per worker was 3,823,000 KRW, up 3.2% from the same month last year. Among them, regular employees earned 4,059,000 KRW, an increase of 3.6%, and temporary and daily workers earned 1,829,000 KRW, up 3.5%.

The average monthly total working hours per person was 153.3 hours, down 1.4 hours. In particular, temporary and daily workers’ working hours decreased by 3.1 hours, a larger reduction than the 0.8-hour decrease for regular employees.

The Business Establishment Labor Survey is conducted monthly to examine the number of workers, new hires, job changers, wages, and working hours from the labor demand perspective (business establishments). It serves as basic data for labor policy and as an economic outlook indicator.

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