May part-time job number hits record high in Korea

[Photo by Yonhap]

The number of part-time workers in South Korea, or those who work between 1 and 17 hours a week, topped a record-breaking 2.7 million in May 2024.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, there were 2,709,000 part-time workers who fell into this category in May, up 535,000 from a year earlier. This is the highest figure for May since monthly statistics began to be collected in July 1982.

Statistics Korea attributed the increase to Buddha’s birthday on May 15th, 2024, which fell within the survey period and generally reduced the number of hours worked. “A holiday during the survey week contributed to the overall downward shift in working hours,” the agency said.

Others, however, suggest that the increase in part-time workers with limited hours is more fundamentally driven by an increase in the minimum wage. To manage labor costs and avoid paying weekly holiday pay, which is required for workers who work 15 hours or more per week, it is believed that many self-employed individuals are hiring multiple part-time workers for shorter shifts.

A convenience store owner in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province employs four part-time workers for weekday day shifts, for example. “The burden of labor costs, including the weekly vacation pay, is too high as the minimum wage continues to rise. To avoid paying the weekly holiday allowance, I hired several part-time workers,” the store’s owner said.

Meanwhile, the overall increase in the number of employed people was the smallest in three years and three months. The number of employed individuals aged 15 and over was 28,915,000 in May 2024, a rise of only 80,000 from the previous year.