Gig economy spreads among younger, older workers

A visitor reads a pamphlet listing job openings at a job fair for senior citizens in Seoul's Mapo District in December 2023. Yonhap

A retired civil servant in his late 60s, Jeong Shin-mook, has been working night shifts as a security guard on weekends at an office building in Seoul for years after his retirement.

Although he works less than 30 hours a week, he finds these hours "long enough to earn a sufficient amount of pocket money in addition to my pension."

“I also like this job because I can freely spend the daytime with my family or friends, which would be unthinkable if I was hired as a full-time employee,” he said.

In contrast, Park, a man in his 30s from Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, says he has had no choice but to take on various temporary, part-time jobs, as he has struggled to secure a regular position for years after graduating from college in Seoul.

“I took jobs whenever they were available, including food delivery on motorbikes and serving at restaurants, because otherwise I can’t pay my rent and sustain a living,” Park said, refusing to give his full name.

Jobseekers attend an employment fair for young programmers in central Seoul, Aug. 2. Yonhap

Both Jeong and Park are among the millions of workers who, whether by choice or necessity, hold temporary and part-time jobs amid the shifting employment trends in Korea.

This trend aligns with the gig economy, which refers to a labor market characterized by freelance and side-hustle work.

The term "gig" is slang for a job that lasts only for a specified period of time.

These jobs are known for their flexibility and independence. However, a significant downside is that workers often have little or no job security, including limited access to health coverage.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of people who worked less than 36 hours per week reached 6.8 million in July, representing an increase of 357,000 from the previous year.

The 2024 figure also represents an all-time high for any July since Statistics Korea began compiling the data in 1980.

“It can be said more than one out of four employees in Korea are gig workers,” Statistics Korea explained, noting that the number of employed individuals nationwide stood at 28.41 million in 2023.

What was even more intriguing, according to the agency, was that those with so-called “micro jobs” also reached record 2.55 million in July.

Employees in this category work less than 17 hours per week, including those who work as little as one hour per week.

The statistics agency assessed that the growth of the gig economy is largely driven by two factors: the increasing difficulty for younger jobseekers to secure their first job and the rising demand for part-time work among retired individuals in an aging society.

For those aged 15 to 29, it took 11.5 months on average as of May to get a job after graduation.

The time gap this year was 1.1 months longer than a year ago, as businesses prefer experienced workers to rookies to save training costs.

In turn, the number of gig workers in the age group ticked up 5.5 percent year-on-year to 1.06 million as of July.

For those in their 30s, the number of gig workers increased by 11.4 percent year-on-year to 688,212 over the same period.

The number of gig workers among those in their 60s or older stood at 2.78 million in July, up 5 percent from a year earlier.