S. Korea adds 379,000 jobs for wage earners in Q2; youth hiring falls

▲ Jobseekers check notices at a job fair in Seoul on Nov. 21, 2023. (Yonhap)

wage workers-tally

S. Korea adds 379,000 jobs for wage earners in Q2; youth hiring falls

SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea added 379,000 jobs for wage earners in the second quarter, but new positions for young people had logged an on-year decline, data showed Friday.

The number of paid employee jobs came to 20.58 million in the April-June period, up from 20.21 tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The on-year growth has slowed for the fifth quarter in a row, and it marked the first time since the fourth quarter of 2021 when the number of new employee jobs fell below 400,000.

Of the new jobs, 76.5 percent, or 290,000 positions, were for those in their 60s and older, followed by 25.6 percent for people in their 50s. Jobs for people in their 30s and 40s rose 56,000 and 3,000, respectively.

But the country shed 68,000 jobs for salaried workers in their 20s and those younger during the cited period, the third consecutive quarterly fall.

The agency said the dwindling youth employment came as the retail sector, which hires many young part-timers and other paid workers, reduced employment in the second quarter, while the sheer number of people in the age group has been on the decline.

By sector, the health and social welfare segment reported the largest job increase with 108,000 new positions, and the accommodation and dining sector had 51,000 new jobs. The manufacturing industry also added 49,000 new salaried worker positions.

The education and real estate sectors had fewer jobs for salaried workers in the second quarter.

By gender, the number of jobs for women grew 230,000, and the comparable figure for men came to 149,000, the data showed.

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