By Kang Seung-woo
The nation’s job market is showing signs of a mild recovery as the economy continues to create more employment opportunities on the back of robust exports and investment.
But employment polarization has been deepening as youth unemployment continues on an upward spiral.
Statistics Korea announced Wednesday that the number of employed people reached 24.3 million last month, up 473,000 from a year earlier. The unemployment rate reached 3.7 percent in July, 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous month.
The number of new employees was sharply up from the previous month’s 314,000. The employment growth provided a hint that the non-public sector has cranked up job creation, picking up where the government left off.
Despite the recovery of the overall job market, prospects for young people aged between 15 and 29 stayed in the doldrums.
The jobless rate for them increased to 8.5 percent in July from 8.3 percent in June and 6.4 percent in May. The number of employed youngsters also fell by 67,000.
“The government will flex its muscles to come up with measures to solve the youth unemployment problem,” said Yoon Jong-won, a director general at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
According to Statistics Korea, 185,000 government jobs were lost in July, while 658,000 jobs were created in the private sector on a year-on-year basis.
The number of those who got a job in the manufacturing industry increased by 238,000, which was the highest monthly gain since July 2000, on the strength of robust export demand, meaning employment there has returned to the level of the pre-global financial crisis. The services and the construction sectors also saw an increase of 133,000 and 118,000 jobs, respectively.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance expects that approximately 300,000 job seekers will be employed by the private sector in August.
“With the economy making a full-fledged recovery, robust export growth, expanded investment and favorable business performances in the manufacturing sector contributed to pushing up employment last month,” the government statistical agency said.
Despite a 0.2 percentage point increase, the jobless rate still remained under 4 percent for four months in a row.
The rate, which hit a 10-year high of 5 percent in January, was tallied at 3.8 percent in April, 3.2 percent in May and 3.5 percent in June.