Employment Growth Hits 16-Month Low... Youth Employment Rate Plummets (Update)

Ministry of Data and Statistics Releases April Employment Trends
Youth Employment Rate Plummets to 43.7%, Down 1.6 Percentage Points Year-on-Year

Yonhap News Agency

The number of employed people increased by only 48,000 last month, marking the smallest growth in 16 months.

According to the “April Employment Trends” released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on May 13, the number of employed people last month stood at 28,961,000, up by 74,000 compared to the same month last year. This was the smallest increase since December 2024, when the number of employed people decreased by 52,000.

By industry, the largest increase was seen in the health and social welfare services sector (261,000), while professional, scientific and technical services (-115,000), agriculture, forestry and fisheries (-92,000), and manufacturing (-55,000) recorded declines.

The increase in employment numbers reached the 100,000 range in January, then climbed to the 200,000 range for two consecutive months in February and March, but dropped to the 70,000 range last month. The narrowing of the growth was due to either slower employment growth or larger declines in sectors such as transportation and warehousing, professional and scientific services, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The polarization of jobs between young people and the elderly was also pronounced. The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 declined by 194,000, and the number of employed people in their 40s, who play a pivotal role in the economy, decreased by 17,000.

In contrast, the number of employed people aged 60 and above increased by 189,000, far surpassing the overall increase of 74,000. Without the elderly aged 60 and above, employment growth would have been negative.

The employment rate for those aged 15 and above stood at 63.0%, down 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier. This marks the first decline since December 2024, when it fell by 0.3 percentage points.

The employment rate for those aged 15 to 64, the standard used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), was 70.0%, up 0.1 percentage points from the same month last year. However, the employment rate for young people aged 15 to 29 dropped sharply to 43.7%, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points year-on-year.

The unemployment rate stood at 2.9%, the same as one year ago. The number of unemployed people was 853,000, down by 2,000 from a year earlier. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9% compared to the same month last year.

The number of unemployed young people fell by 23,000 year-on-year, and the youth unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points to 7.1%.

The economically inactive population totaled 16,152,000, up 174,000 (1.1%) from a year ago. By gender, the figure for men was 6,223,000, an increase of 173,000 (2.9%) year-on-year, while for women it was 9,929,000, a decrease of 1,000 (0.0%).

The number of people who were resting, meaning temporarily out of the workforce, decreased across all age groups except for those in their 60s. Among the economically inactive population, those aged 60 and above who were resting increased by 92,000 compared to a year ago, while the numbers decreased for people in their 20s (down 16,000), 30s (down 1,000), 40s (down 3,000), and 50s (down 1,000).

The number of people who gave up looking for a job was 353,000, an increase of 15,000 from the same month last year.

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