Hit by prolonged pandemic, corporate employees continue to fall in May

The number of corporate employees in South Korea fell last month as the new coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh down on the job market, data showed Monday.

The number of employees at domestic businesses employing one or more people reached 18.3 million as of the last working day of May, falling by 311,000, or 1.7 percent, from the previous year, according to the monthly data by the labor ministry.

This marks a slower fall compared with April, when the figure dropped by 365,000 from the previous year.

The data showed that the number of employees at accommodation and restaurant businesses slumped by 12.1 percent, while the number of education service employees also fell by 4.2 percent.

But their losses were smaller compared with April, indicating a possible recovery in service industries thanks to school reopenings and government relief payouts that were distributed starting in May.

The on-year drop, meanwhile, was partially offset by a rise in public administrative, defense and social welfare jobs as the government resumed public job projects that had been suspended due to the new coronavirus.

By company size, the number of employees at businesses with 300 or more employees grew 0.4 percent, while those at smaller businesses slumped by 2.1 percent, showing that the pandemic has had a bigger impact on the latter. (Yonhap)