Job growth hits six-year high on fast recovery

By Kang Seung-woo

The number of employed people grew at its fastest pace in seven years last year thanks to the fast economic recovery here. However, on the flip side of this good news is a rise in the jobless rate with more people looking for jobs.

According to data by Statistics Korea, Wednesday, the number of employed was tallied at 20.33 million at the end of 2010, up 323,000 or 1.4 percent from the previous year.

The rise in the employment figure was the biggest since 2004 when 418,000 jobs were added to payrolls.

Also hidden in the numbers was an over-8 percent jobless rate among young people for two consecutive years.

The nation’s unemployment rate reached 3.7 percent in 2010, up from the previous year’s 3.6 percent, the highest since 2005 at the time. The number of unemployed people surpassed 900,000 for the first time in nine years.

The jobless rate for December remained unchanged from a year earlier, meaning the rate was stuck in the 3 percent range for the ninth straight month, the government agency said.

The nation’s unemployment rate sank from 4.1 percent in March last year to 3.8 percent in April after it hit a 10-year high of 5 percent in January.

Statistics Korea attributed the sharp increase in employment to the nation’s solid economic growth, which helped the private sector create more jobs.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 6.1 percent last year.

“Hiring remained robust in non-public sectors, helped by brisk industrial production and exports,” it said.

“The manufacturing, health, social welfare, facility maintenance and construction sectors also saw continued job growth.”

The government expects that this year will see 280,000 new jobs.

“The previous estimate was an increase of 250,000 new jobs but thanks to a strong economic recovery, the nation has overachieved in this,” said Yoon Jong-won, director general of the economic policy bureau at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

“With the job market improving, it will not be difficult to see 280,000 people employed this year.”

Despite the improvement in job conditions, younger job-seekers still had a hard time finding work.

The unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 29 exceeded 8 percent for the second straight year.

Statistics Korea said the high jobless rate was not because job market conditions worsened but because more people in that age bracket resumed job-seeking, bolstered by the economic recovery.