South Korea increases job hiring this year, youth hiring falls

South Korea sees the addition of 379,000 jobs for the second quarter for the year this week, but in general new positions targeted towards younger employees has seen an on-year decline, data showed.

The total number of paid employee jobs came to 20.58 million in the April-June period, up from 20.21 million tallied a year from a year earlier, according to the data from statistics agency Statistics Korea.

On-year growth slowed for the fifth quarter in a row, marking it the first time since late 2021 when the number of new employee jobs fell below 400,000.

76.5%, or 290,000 positions, were available for employees in their 60s and older, followed by 25.6% for people in their 50s. Jobs for people in their 30s and 40s rose to 56,000 and 3,000, respectively.

But the country shed 68,000 jobs for salaried workers in their 20s and those younger during the cited period, the third consecutive quarterly fall. Statistics Korea cited the reduction of youth employment in the retail sector in the second quarter as a reason, while the sheer number of employed people in the age group has been on the decline.

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By sector, the health and social welfare segment reported the largest job increase with 108,000 new positions, and the accommodation and dining sector had 51,000 new jobs. The manufacturing industry also added 49,000 new salaried worker positions. Education and real estate, on the other hand, saw fewer jobs for salaried workers in the second quarter.

The data also showed the increase of employment for women grow to 230,000, while the figure for men came to 149,000, reported The Korea Times.