Korea's April job addition largest in 22 yrs, but nearly half goes to elders, temp hires

[Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

South Korea has added largest jobs in 22 years in April, but the sustainability in the strength remains doubtful as the bulk went to senior citizens through tax-financed opening for public work and temporary hires.

According to monthly job data released by Statistics Korea Wednesday, the number of employed reached 28.08 million in April, up 865,000 from a year earlier, or the biggest gain since 2000.

All age groups added jobs, but elders took the lion’s share of nearly half.

As many as 424,000 Koreans aged 60 or older joined the job market last month. Those in their 50s showed growth of 208,000, followed by 20s with 191,000, 30s with 33,000, and 40s with 15,000.

By industry, healthcare and social welfare services with hiring mostly backed by the government added 230,000 jobs. Public administrative service jobs grew by 91,000.

Manufacturing sector increased payroll by 132,000, the largest since November 2015 on brisk exports.

Wholesale/retail sector shed 11,000 jobs and accommodation/dining sector 27,000 amid prolonged Covid-19 crisis. Finance/insurance sector also lost 54,000 jobs.

The number of regular workers increased by 929,000, and that of temporary workers by 48,000. Day jobs declined by 117,000.

Both the number of self-employed with paid hires and those without grew, recording 39,000 and 20,000, respectively.

Short-hour workers, those working from 1 to 17 hours per week, increased by 83,000, making up the bulk of 102,000 addition in the jobs for working less than 36 hours. The number of those working 36 hours or longer weekly gained by 709,000.

Employment rate for aged 15 or older hit 62.1 percent, the highest for April. The rate is up 1.7 percentage points from a year ago.

Unemployed count came to 864,000, down 283,000 from a year earlier.

Jobless rate fell 1.0 percentage point on year to 3.0 percent, the lowest for April since 1999 when related data collection method changed.

The number of economically inactive pollution totaled at 16.29 million, down 376,000 from a year ago.

“Job growth continued in April on brisk export demand and market’s rapid digital transformation, but whether the strength will continue is uncertain due to challenging environment from Russia-Ukraine crisis,” said Gong Min-sook, social statistics team director, Statistics Korea.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]