Job growth deceleration continues for 7th straight quarter at end of last year

Job seekers look at notices at an employment center in Mapo District, western Seoul. [NEWS1]

Korea's wage worker job growth continued to decelerate for the seventh quarter in a row with the number of jobs for young people continuing its more than yearlong slide in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed Wednesday.

The number of paid employee jobs came to 20.75 million as of November 2023, up 293,000 from a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Korea.

The country has seen slower on-year employment growth for seven quarters in a row since the beginning of 2022.

By age, jobs for those in their 20s and younger fell by 97,000, or 3 percent, to 3.13 million, the fifth quarterly decrease, and the number of paid positions for those in their 40s fell by 24,000 to 4.8 million in the fourth quarter.

However, 249,000 jobs were added for people in their 60s and older to bring the total to 3.62 million, and people in their 50s and 30s also saw paid jobs increase by 113,000 and 52,000, respectively.

By sector, the health and social welfare segment added 107,000 jobs, and the food and accommodation field had 39,000 more jobs in the fourth quarter. Hiring in the manufacturing sector rose by 36,000, the data showed.

BY SHIN HA-NEE, YONHAP [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]