Public sector job growth outpaces private sector growth

While the number of jobs in the public sector increased by over 6 percent in 2019, the number of jobs in the private sector increased only 2 percent.

A man looks at a job bulletin board at an employment and welfare center in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Jan. 13. [NEWS1]

While the number of jobs in the public sector increased by over 6 percent in 2019, the number of jobs in the private sector increased only 2 percent.

This is one of the findings detailed in a recent report published by Statistics Korea on changes in number of jobs in the public and private sectors in 2019.

In 2019, the number of jobs in the public sector was 2.6 million, up 151,000, or 6.1 percent compared to a year earlier. That accounted for about 9.5 percent of all employees in the country as of 2019.

That’s the largest year-on-year increase rate since the statistics agency started collecting related data in 2016. The increase rate was 2 percent in 2017 and 0.8 percent in 2018.

Jobs in the public sector include employees who work for the central government and local governments, as well as those who work in public institutions.

The number of people who work for the central and local governments was about 2.22 million in 2019, up 5.9 percent compared to the year-earlier period. Those at public institutions amounted to 382,000, a 7.8 percent increase year-on-year.

The statistics agency also found that more men work in the public sector than women. Of all employees working in the public sector, some 54.3 percent are men, while 45.7 percent are women.

But the number of women has been steadily increasing. In 2016, it was 44.6 percent and increased to 45 percent in 2017 and 2018 and then reached 45.7 percent in 2019.

By ages, people in their 40s were the largest group in the public sector, at 27.5 percent. People in their 30s were about 25.5 percent, and people in their 50s 23.5 percent. People in their 20s and under accounted for 16 percent, while people in their 60s were 7.5 percent.

By type of job, jobs in public administration, defense and social security were 48 percent of the total. Education-related positions, including public teachers and administrators, were 27.7 percent, while medical and social welfare services accounted for 3.5 percent. Science and technology service positions were 3.4 percent, followed by finance and insurance institution jobs at 3.2 percent.

Despite the fast growth in the number of jobs in the public sector, jobs in the private sector are growing slowly.

In 2019, Korea had 24.02 million jobs of all kinds, up 2.6 percent compared to the previous year. Of them, jobs in the private sector only rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year.

Among them, some 60,000 jobs were newly created in large companies, while small- and medium-sized companies hired 230,000 new employees. In non-profit organizations, 320,000 new jobs were created in 2019.

By industry, about 4.73 million employees worked in manufacturing — about 19.7 percent of all jobs. Some 3.06 million jobs came from retail and wholesale, while 2.11 million jobs were medical and social welfare related.

Jobs in medical and social welfare service rose by 160,000 in 2019 on year, while jobs in retail and wholesale increased by 80,000. But jobs in construction decreased by 70,000.

BY CHEA SARAH [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]