Korea's youth work force continues to face 26-month jobs slump
The country's youth employment rate fell for a 26th straight month in June as overall job growth lagged population gains and key industries stayed weak.
Job seekers stand in front of job listings board in a job search coaching center in Seoul, on July 15.YONHAP
Korea's youth employment rate fell once again in June from a year earlier for 26 consecutive months. The overall employment rate also declined in this year’s second quarter — the first time in six years since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at 29.154 million in June, up 63,000 from the same month last year, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said in its report on employment trends released on Wednesday.
The number of employed peoplehad fallen by 40,000 from a year earlier this May but returned to growth after one month.
However, the employment rate declined because job growth failed to keep pace with population growth. Employment rate, which is measured by the share of employed people among those aged 15 and older, stood at 63.4 percent in June, down 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
June marked the third consecutive month in which the employment rate for people aged 15 and older was lower than a year earlier.
The employment rate for this year’s second quarter stood at 63.2 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year. It was the first second-quarter decline since 2020, when the Covid-19 shock pushed the rate down 1.3 percentage points from its previous year’s second quarter.
“The population aged 15 and older increased by 254,000 [from the same month a year earlier], but the number of employed people only rose by 63,000,” Bin Hyun-joon, chief of the social statistics bureau at the Data Ministry said.
Students crowd the 2026 Seoul Career Fair For Education at the aT Center in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 14.YONHAP
Weak employment conditions continued among people aged 15 to 29.
The number of employed people in the age group fell by 197,000 from a year earlier to 3.428 million. Their employment rate also dropped 1.7 percentage points to 43.9 percent.
The youth employment rate has posted on year declines for 26 consecutive months since May 2024.
The youth unemployment rate, which measures the share of unemployed people in the economically active population aged 15 to 29, stood at 7 percent. It rose 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier, the largest increase since March 2025.
Weak employment also persisted in Korea's key industries.
Manufacturing employment fell by 97,000, or 2.2 percent, from a year earlier. The figure marked 24 consecutive months of on-year declines.
A researcher conducts a study at a semiconductor laboratory of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Daejeon in this undated photo.YONHAP
Although exports have remained strong, namely driven by semiconductors, the gains have not translated into employment.
"Compared with other manufacturing industries, the semiconductor sector has a relatively weaker job creation effect," Data Ministry’s chief of the social statistics bureau Bin said. "As a result, strong semiconductor exports had only a limited impact on actual employment."
Employment in the construction industry also remained weak.
The number of construction workers fell by 67,000, or 3.4 percent, from a year earlier as the sector continued to struggle. The industry has now recorded 26 consecutive months of on-year employment declines.
A construction site in Suwon, Gyeonggi, is shown in this photo unrelated to the article.NEWS1
The government plans to prepare measures to support vulnerable groups and industries facing prolonged weakness.
The government plans to train more than 200,000 young professionals in industries such as AI and semiconductors by 2030, according to its 2026 second-half economic growth strategy announced on Tuesday.
It also aims to create more than 200,000 quality jobs in the public and private sectors.
As part of the effort, the government plans to draw up a tentatively named "Youth Employment Recovery Plan" (translated) in the third quarter.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
