The number of employed people aged 15 and older rose by 63,000 from a year earlier to 29.154 million in June, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The increase reversed a decline of 40,000 in May.
The recovery, however, remained uneven.
Employment among people aged 15 to 29 fell by 197,000 from a year earlier to 3.428 million, although the decline narrowed from May's 255,000 drop, the steepest since January 2021.
The youth employment rate fell 1.7 percentage points to 43.9 percent, while the youth unemployment rate rose 0.9 percentage point to 7.0 percent.
Manufacturing employment also remained under pressure.
The sector shed 97,000 jobs from a year earlier in June, marking a 24th consecutive month of declines, although the pace improved from May's 140,000 loss.
Construction employment fell by 67,000, extending its contraction to 26 consecutive months and worsening from a decline of 43,000 in May.
The weakness in goods-producing industries was partly offset by continued hiring in services.
Health and social welfare services added 214,000 jobs, followed by arts, sports and recreation with 55,000 and transportation and storage with 48,000.
Despite the increase in overall employment, labor market indicators remained soft.
The employment rate for people aged 15 and older stood at 63.4 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier.
The employment rate for people aged 15 to 64, the OECD's standard measure of working-age employment, slipped 0.1 percentage point to 70.2 percent and was unchanged from May.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment rose by 66,000 from the previous month to 28.809 million, while the employment rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 62.6 percent.
The unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent, unchanged from a year earlier and down from 2.9 percent in May.
The number of unemployed people increased by 10,000 from a year earlier to 834,000. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate eased to 2.7 percent from 2.8 percent in May.
The composition of employment also remained fragile.
The number of regular employees increased by just 16,000 from a year earlier, while temporary and daily workers declined by 51,000 and 45,000, respectively.
Meanwhile, the economically inactive population—people who were neither employed nor actively seeking work—rose by 181,000 from a year earlier to 16.009 million. The increase was driven mainly by people attending school or training programs and those engaged in housework, while the number of people outside the labor force because of childcare declined.
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