South Korea’s employment growth in 2024 slowed substantially compared to previous years, with December marking a net job loss compared to one year before, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday. The country’s employment marked 28.58 million last year, increasing by 0.9 percent (159,000) compared to 2023. This was the lowest growth since 2020 when Korea had 218,000 fewer jobs than the previous year.
Korea’s job market grew significantly after 2020, adding 369,000 jobs in 2021 and peaking at 816,000 new jobs in 2022. But the following year saw job market growth slow with 327,000 jobs added in 2023. The latest slump in the job market growth is largely due to struggling wholesale/retail and construction sectors, each marking on-year losses of 61,000 and 49,000 jobs, respectively. The construction sector saw its sharpest decline since the government started tallying related figures in 2013. Employment in manufacturing also decreased by 6,000 compared to the previous year. The public health and social services sector and information and technologies sector grew by 83,000 and 72,000 jobs, respectively.
The country’s slumping job market appears to have worsened in December, with 28.04 million people employed. The figure was 52,000 less than the same month in 2023, marking the first monthly net loss in the number of jobs since February 2021. The latest government figure also showed a continued increase in older employees. Jobs held by those 60 and above increased by 26,600 from 2023 to 2024, the largest increase of any age group. It was followed by on-year increases of 90,000 among those in their 30s and 28,000 among those in their 50s.
Jobs for the 15-29 age group shrank by 124,000, while employment among 40-somethings also dropped by 81,000. Government data has shown a continued increase in older workers here as the general population ages. Last year’s data by Statistics Korea showed that workers aged 60 and above outnumbered those under 30 for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2024. Ministry of the Interior and Safety data announced earlier this month showed the average age for Koreans went from 44.8 in 2023 to 45.3 in 2024. The government announced in December that Korea has formally become a super-aged society — a society where more than 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or above. The unemployment rate as of December marked 3.8 percent, up 0.5 percent from the same month in the previous year. The unemployment rate for the 15-28 age group was 5.9 percent, up 0.4 percent from the same month in 2023.
Korea Herald
