*Updated with additional information
SEOUL, May 13 (AJP) — South Korea’s job growth slowed in April to its weakest pace since December 2024, when the country was grappling with the aftermath of the martial law episode, as the war in the Middle East dragged into a third month.
The number of employed people aged 15 and older rose by 74,000 from a year earlier to 28.96 million in April, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said Wednesday.
It marked the smallest gain in one year and four months, since December 2024, when the number of employed people fell by 52,000.
The employment rate for the working-age population, aged 15 to 64, stood at 70 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier.
But youth employment continued to weaken. The employment rate for people aged 15 to 29 fell by 1.6 percentage points to 43.7 percent, extending its decline for a second straight year since May 2024.
Concerns are growing because the weakness in youth employment cannot be explained simply by demographic decline.
According to the statistics agency, the number of employed people in their 20s fell by 195,000 from a year earlier, while the youth employment rate has been declining for 24 consecutive months since May last year.
The April drop was also sharper than in previous months, widening from declines of 0.7 percentage point in February and 0.9 percentage point in March.
The youth unemployment rate stood at 7.1 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier, but the figure does not necessarily point to an improvement. The number of people preparing for employment plunged by 43,000, or 6.4 percent, from a year earlier to 626,000, while the number of discouraged workers rose by 15,000.
Polarization between experienced workers and newcomers also deepened. The number of unemployed people with prior work experience fell by 1.7 percent on year to 785,000, while the number of unemployed people with no prior work experience surged 21 percent to 68,000.
Amid the continued bifurcation of the labor market, more people are staying in education or training.
The number of economically inactive people enrolled in education or training rose by 96,000, or 3 percent, over the past 12 months — an unusual increase for April, when the figure typically declines or remains flat.
This suggests that young people are delaying their entry into the labor market rather than exiting it altogether, waiting for job conditions to improve.
The number of people in their 20s who said they were “taking a break” came to 376,000, down 16,000 from a year earlier, marking a second consecutive monthly decline. The overall increase in those taking a break was driven by people aged 60 and older, whose number jumped 8.4 percent on year to 1.18 million.
By industry, employment increased in health and social welfare services by 261,000 and in arts, sports and recreation-related services by 54,000.
But job losses continued in professional, scientific and technical services, down 115,000; manufacturing, down 55,000; and agriculture, forestry and fisheries, down 92,000.
The decline in professional, scientific and technical services — sectors favored by younger workers and increasingly exposed to artificial intelligence — points to a shortage of quality entry-level jobs and a structural shift in the labor market that is worsening youth employment conditions.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Employment and Labor on Wednesday unveiled the "Youth New Deal" to address the sluggish job market caused by the Middle East conflict and the shift toward AI.
A central component is the "K-New Deal Academy," a vocational training program involving 70 companies, including the top 10 conglomerates, which aims to train 12,000 individuals to align skills with corporate demand.
The "Youth Leap Boot Camp," a joint university-industry initiative, will also launch in July following university selections in June. Public and private internship programs are also set to begin recruitment this month.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.