Employment Takes a Dip in December

For the first time in nearly four years, the number of employed individuals has seen a decline. Last month, there was a decrease of 52,000 employed people compared to the previous year, marking a significant shift in the employment landscape since February 2021.

Annual Employment Trends for 2024

Statistics Korea's latest report reveals that the number of employed persons aged 15 and older stood at 28.041 million in December, showing a decrease of 52,000 from the previous year. Despite this, the employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 saw a slight increase to 69.4 percent.

Seo Woon-joo, director of the Social Statistics Bureau at Statistics Korea, attributed the December employment decline to the reduction in senior job programs, which typically have a project period of around 11 months.

Breaking Down the Numbers

On an annual basis, 2024 saw an increase of 159,000 employed persons, reaching a total of 28.576 million. This follows a significant surge in employment by 816,000 in 2022, the largest increase in 22 years, which then slowed to 327,000 in 2023 and further to 159,000 in 2024.

Employment among those aged 60 and older increased by 266,000, the largest gain among all age groups. Conversely, employment decreased by 124,000 among those in their 20s and by 81,000 among those in their 30s.

Industry-Specific Employment Changes

The information and communication sector and the professional, scientific, and technical services sectors experienced employment growth of 6.9 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively. However, the construction industry saw a 2.3 percent decline, while wholesale and retail trade employment fell by 1.9 percent, and the manufacturing sector saw a slight decrease of 0.1 percent.