By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
The number of male workers in their 30s and 40s has fallen at its fastest rate in 10 years, with intensifying corporate downsizing amid the deepening economic downturn.
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), Sunday, male workers aged between 30 and 49 fell by 89,000 to 7.57 million in March from the same month of the previous year. It was the largest decrease since March 1999, when 110,000 men in that age bracket lost their jobs in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial market meltdown.
The number of employed 30-somethings totaled 3.74 million, down 56,000 from the preceding year. Workers in their 40s decreased by 33,000 to 3.83 million. As a whole, 195,000 jobs disappeared last month year-on-year after net slides of 142,000 in February, 103,000 in January and 12,000 in December.
March marks the most year-on-year job losses since the same month 10 years ago, when the nation lost 390,000.
The employment-population ratio, a proportion of the employed to total population aged over 15, stood at 56.7 percent, down from 57.9 percent the previous year. About 89 percent of 30-somethings were employed, down from 90.2 percent, while 90.2 percent of workers in their 40s were employed, a fall from 91.8 percent.
The global economic downturn first hit high school and university graduates hard, as companies refrained from hiring new workers because of plunging sales at home and abroad.
Businesses then targeted female workers, particular those employed on a temporary basis, in a bid to cut costs and stay afloat, while many small shops were forced to shut on rapidly sinking private consumption.
The ongoing corporate downsizing has gone into a full swing, with many companies now dismissing a large number of male employees in their 30s and 40s, who are the main breadwinners for most households here, amid the deepening economic slump.
The worsening job market conditions are expected to further dampen already sluggish private spending, negatively affecting production, investment and other corporate activities.
``In the past, the majority of unemployed males in their 30s and 40s were bankrupt small shop owners or non-regular workers with no job protection. But now, more and more regular employees in the construction and other struggling corporate sectors are getting the pink slip amid aggravating economic conditions,'' an NSO official said.
He said the current hardship has begun affecting not only the low-income brackets, but also middle-class households, the backbone of the world's 13th largest economy.
``If conditions deteriorate further, more middle-aged males employed by large businesses will lose their jobs, worsening household finances, already hit hard by slower income growth and falling asset values,'' the official said.