Home > Business > Economy

Seven out of 10 job seekers cannot find work amid hiring decline, data suggests

Published: 07 Apr. 2025, 17:32

A job seeker looks at job advertisements at the 2025 Yangcheon District Job Fair at Haenuri Town in Yangcheon District, western Seoul, on April 1. [YONHAP]

The job opening-to-applicant ratio, which refers to the number of job openings compared to new job seekers, fell to 0.32 in March of this year, the latest data showed Monday.

This means seven out of 10 people seeking new jobs cannot find one. The March figure represents the ratio's lowest point since the foreign exchange crisis of the late 1990s. Employment is flashing warning signs, with the number of workers receiving unemployment benefits rising to levels unseen since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of regular employment insurance subscribers increased by 154,000, or one percent, compared to a year earlier, reaching 15.435 million, according to the Labor Ministry’s employment report released on Monday.

As of the end of March, this is the lowest rate of increase since the statistics were first compiled in 1997. In manufacturing and services, the number increased by 6,000 and about 170,000, respectively, but it fell by 21,000 in construction. The construction sector has been declining for 20 consecutive months. In manufacturing, excluding the increase of 24,000 foreign workers due to the mandatory subscription policy, the number effectively fell by 18,000.

Regular employment insurance subscribers are classified as having relatively “good jobs” that are included in the social safety net. The slowing pace of increase in these jobs is due to structural changes such as an aging population, with more people in their 60s and older who have difficulty enrolling in employment insurance. In addition to this, it also reflects warning signs in the labor market.

In reality, the door to employment has become narrower. The job opening-to-applicant ratio stood at 0.32 — its lowest March figure since 1999, when the ratio was 0.17, according to data from a government-run job information website last month.

The recent drop in the ratio has been driven more by decreased demand, or job openings, than by increased supply, or job seekers. In the first quarter of this year, the number of job seekers increased by 37,200 year-on-year, while the number of job openings decreased by 71,700. This means that companies have shut their hiring doors, leading to a decline in job availability.

The minimum wage for 2025 is announced in front of the Seoul Western Employment Welfare Plus Center in Mapo Distirct, western Seoul, on April 1. [NEWS1]

“Jobs have decreased mainly in manufacturing and business support services,” said Chun Kyung-gi, head of the Future Employment Analysis Division at the Labor Ministry. “U.S. tariff policies will continue to affect employment, but this can be interpreted as companies preemptively reducing hiring to prepare for uncertainty.”

Unemployment benefits in the form of job-seeking allowances have also reached record levels in the number of recipients and total payouts.

In March, the number of new applicants for job-seeking allowances was 137,000, an increase of 6,000 compared to the same month last year. The total number of recipients was 693,000, an increase of 38,000, or 5.9 percent, from a year earlier.

Except for March 2021, during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when there were 750,000 recipients, this is the highest number of workers to receive unemployment benefits. The amount of job-seeking allowance paid out, 1.051 trillion won ($716 million), was also the second highest on record.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY KIM YEON-JOO [[email protected]]