South Korea’s employment rate has reached a record high but job additions slowed for a second consecutive month in May following a brief rebound in March amid lingering economic uncertainties, new data revealed on Wednesday.
The number of employed people came to 28.83 million in May, up around 351,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.
South Korea’s on-year job additions had been slowing for nine consecutive months through February, before rebounding in March, when they rose 469,000 on-year. In April, the country added 354,000 jobs, reports Yonhap News Agency.
Last month, the country’s jobless rate fell 0.3 percentage point on-year to 2.7 per cent.
The overall increase was mostly led by those aged 60 and above, with the number of jobs for the group rising 379,000 over the period.
The number of jobs for those in their 30s and 50s advanced 70,000 and 49,000, respectively, the data showed.
The job market remained, however, challenging for younger South Koreans, as the number of positions for the 20-something group declined by 63,000, and those for 40-somethings slipped 48,000.
Meanwhile, the employment-to-population ratio of South Koreans aged 15 and above reached 63.5 per cent in the month, up 0.5 percentage point on-year, marking the highest level for any May since the agency began compiling related data in 1982.
The ratio for those aged 15-64 edged up 0.7 percentage point to 69.9, the highest for the month since the data was released in 1989.
In 2022, South Korea added an average of 816,000 jobs on-year each month, driven by the post-pandemic recovery.
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