Korea adds more than 1 million jobs

Economy

Published: 16 Feb. 2022, 15:06 Updated: 21 Feb. 2022, 17:14

Korea adds more than 1 million jobs

An employee of an employment center in Seoul hanging a job post on the bulletin board on Wednesday. There were 1 million more people employed compared to a year ago in January, which is the first in 22 years. [YONHAP]

Total employment grew by more than 1 million people in January, the biggest number of jobs added in nearly 22 years.

However, a base effect was in play as nearly 1 million jobs were lost in January 2021 over a year earlier due to Covid-19.

The number of people working in Korea reached 27 million last month, according to Statistics Korea Wednesday, up 1.14 million or 4.4 percent over a year earlier.

The last time the increase exceeded 1 million was in March 2000, when 1.21 million jobs were added in the recovery from the late-1990s Asian financial crisis.

The number of people employed has been growing for 11 months in a row.

“The number of employed has been increasing for 11 consecutive months thanks to the base effect in which the number of employed significantly dropped with the third wave in January 2021,” said Kong Mi-sook, a senior Statistics Korea official.

Changes in how business is done, including more digital transactions and non-face-to-face services, have played a significant part in the job recovery.

“The number of unemployed and the economically inactive population [people not looking for jobs],” have declined,” Kong said.

Last month, the number of unemployed amounted to 1.14 million. That’s 427,000 less than a year ago or a 27.2 percent drop.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent from 5.7 percent a year earlier.

However, it was the first time since last June that the number of unemployed exceeded 1 million.

By category, jobs in health and social welfare, which are heavily funded by the government, continued to be a major driver. Last month, 250,000 more were employed in this category compared to the year-earlier period, which was an 11.8 percent increase.

Health and welfare is the third-largest sector of the economy in terms of jobs, employing 8.8 percent of all Koreans employed.

Jobs in restaurants and at hotels rose by 128,000 or 6.5 percent.

The transportation and storage sector employed 121,000 more in January compared to a year ago, up 7.8 percent thanks to strong sales of goods online.

Manufacturing, which employs 16.6 percent of all of those with jobs, added 66,000 positions compared to the year-earlier period, a 1.5 percent year-on-year.

The wholesale and retail sector, which employs 12.4 percent of the nation's workforce, lost 56,000 jobs, a 1.6 percent decline.

The base effect contributed to increases in jobs for all age categories.

Jobs for people in their 30s rose 22,000, up 0.5 percent, and for people in their 40s they rose 24,000, up 0.4 percent.

People 60 or older continued to see the biggest increases in jobs: 522,000, up 12 percent.


BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]