Employment on the Rise
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
More jobs are being created amid an economic revival, according to government statistics Thursday.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) said the number of employed people totaled 23.75 million in July, up 303,000, or 1.3 percent, from a year ago. The government aims at creating 300,000 jobs this year. The year-on-year increase stood at over 300,000 in June.
The number of jobless fell 3.4 percent in July from the same month the previous year to 795,000, down 28,000 from a year ago. The jobless rate stood at 3.2 percent, falling 0.2 percentage points.
The jobless rate for the young also fell 0.4 percentage points to 7.6 percent.
While businesses, and private and public services sectors created 398,000 more jobs, the electric, transportation, communication and financial industries saw an increase of 61,000 in employment. The manufacturing sector saw 53,000 jobs disappear, and agriculture and fisheries industries are employing 80,000 fewer than the previous year. Wholesale and retail, restaurants and lodgings industries saw 25,000 jobs evaporate.
The statistics showed that the quality of jobs is also improving.
Among salaried workers, those having stable jobs with employment contracts lasting over a year grew 6.7 percent. Temporary workers with contracts lasting from one month to one year, meanwhile, decreased by 1.2 percent, and the number of daily workers plunged 3.3 percent.
``Employment continued its rising trend from the previous month. Though the average working hours decreased due to holidays, the job quality seems to be good thanks to the labor law to protect non-regular workers,'' said Jeon Shin-ae, director of the Population & Social Statistics Bureau at the NSO.
Among the 39.2 million population aged 15 years or older, the economically active population totaled 24.5 million as of July, up 1.1 percent from a year ago.