Korea added over 600,000 jobs for wage workers in second quarter

Korea added 628,000 jobs for wage workers in the second quarter of 2022 amid the recovery of the service and construction sectors amid eased Covid-19 restrictions, data showed Thursday.

The number of paid employee jobs came to 20.2 million in the April-June period, up from the 19.57 million tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

By sector, jobs in the health and social welfare segment rose by 106,000, followed by the construction industry with 102,000. The manufacturing sector added 73,000 jobs, the data showed.

The accommodation and restaurant sector, a segment hit hard by the pandemic, also reported an increase of 47,000 jobs.

By gender, the number of jobs for men rose by 262,000, and that for women increased by 366,000, the data showed.

By age, the number of jobs for salaried workers rose in all age groups.

In detail, jobs for wage workers in their 60s and above rose 295,000, followed by people in their 50s with 209,000. The number of such jobs for Koreans in their 20s and 30s rose 21,000 and 25,000, respectively.

Korea added jobs for the 20th straight month in October, but the growth continued to slow for the fifth month in a row as the country braces for a possible recession amid high inflation and slowed growth.

Yonhap