South Korea¡¯s job additions soften in June, mostly going to seniors

[Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

South Korea added more than 800,000 jobs last month, more than half going to seniors, to underscore the fragility of the job growth streak.

According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the total number of employed stood at 28,478,000 in June, adding 841,000 jobs from the previous year. This is the largest addition in the month of June in 22 years.

Payroll has kept up on-year gains every month since March last year, but the addition has eased from 935,000 in May.

All age groups added jobs, but the largest, or more than half, went to those aged 60 or older with 472,000 additions. Those in their 50s followed with 245,000, 117,000 for 20s, 18,000 for 30s, and 2,000 for 40s.

By industry, the healthcare and social welfare service sector, which mostly hires seniors, added 177,000 jobs in June compared to a year-ago period, manufacturing following closely behind with 158,000, and transportation and warehousing 126,000. Employment in the financial and insurance sector, on the other hand, plummeted by 59,000 on the rise of online transactions and the closing of bank branches. The wholesale and retail sector also shed 37,000 jobs and the organization, maintenance, and miscellaneous private service sector 16,000.

For the type of job, 309,000 jobs were added to the professional field, 171,000 to labor, and 133,000 to service. Jobs in the sales field, however, tumbled by around 116,000.

The number of regular workers surged by 899,000, while the number of temporary workers declined by 53,000 and day jobs 79,000.

Both the number of self-employed with paid hires and without each climbed 121,000 and 6,000.

Those who work for 36 hours or longer per week expanded to 22,192,000 while those who work less than 36 hours fell to 5,902,000.

The unemployment tally plunged 205,000 from a year-ago period to 888,000 in June. The jobless rate stood at 3 percent, down 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The economically inactive population reached 15,882,000 down 456,000 from a year ago. Those who gave up searching for jobs fell from 149,000 to 435,000.

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