A job information board at an employment center in Seoul [Yonhap]
A job information board at an employment center in Seoul [Yonhap]

The number of employed people in South Korea rose by 108,000 from a year earlier last month, returning to the 100,000-plus range for the first time in four months. However, the overall employment rate fell for the fourth consecutive month on a year-on-year basis, youth employment declined for the 45th straight month, and the rise in the youth unemployment rate was the steepest in five and a half years.

According to the July 2026 employment survey released by the Ministry of Statistics on Wednesday, the number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at about 29.136 million last month, up 108,000 from the same month a year ago. The pace of job growth had slowed sharply after reaching 206,000 in March — falling to 74,000 in April, dropping by 40,000 in May and recovering to 63,000 in June — before rebounding to the 100,000-plus range in July.

However, the surface-level recovery in employment numbers does not point to a broad improvement in the labor market. The employment rate for those aged 15 and older was 63.3 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier — the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year decline.

The weakness was most pronounced among young people. The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 fell by 191,000 from a year earlier, marking the 45th consecutive month of decline. The youth employment rate dropped 1.6 percentage points to 44.2 percent, falling for the 27th straight month. Among those in their 20s alone, employment fell by 204,000.

The number of unemployed people aged 15 to 29 reached 251,000, up 41,000 from a year earlier. The youth unemployment rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 6.8 percent, the largest single-month increase since January 2021, when it rose 1.8 percentage points — making it the steepest rise in five years and six months. Overall unemployment also climbed, with the total number of unemployed rising by 50,000 to 776,000 and the unemployment rate edging up 0.2 percentage point to 2.6 percent.

Bin Hyeon-jun, director general of social statistics at the Ministry of Statistics, said that during the survey reference week there were civil service exams, public-sector hiring drives and an expansion of public-sector recruitment — including tax delinquency managers, farmland surveyors and public interns — and that increased job-seeking activity among young people also contributed to the rise.

Employment weakness in key industries also persisted. The number of manufacturing workers fell 68,000, or 1.6 percent, from a year earlier — the 25th consecutive month of decline, though the pace of contraction eased from June's drop of 97,000. Construction employment fell 57,000, or 3.0 percent, extending its losing streak to 27 months. Agriculture, forestry and fishing shed 80,000 workers, a decline of 5.4 percent.

In contrast, health care and social welfare services added 173,000 workers, up 5.3 percent. Arts, sports and leisure-related services gained 48,000, or 8.4 percent, while public administration, defense and social security administration added 46,000, or 3.5 percent. The service and public sectors effectively underpinned the overall increase in employment.

By employment status, the number of regular wage workers rose by 71,000, while temporary workers fell by 40,000 and daily workers declined by 41,000. Among the self-employed, both those with paid employees and those without each increased by 75,000.

The economically inactive population stood at about 16.103 million, up 99,000 from a year earlier. However, the number of people who were neither working nor seeking work for no particular reason — classified as "resting" — fell by 62,000 to about 2.518 million. The "resting" population dropped by 71,000 among those in their 20s and by 12,000 among those in their 30s. The number of discouraged workers fell by 18,000 to 378,000.


fact0514@heraldcorp.com