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Although the number of employed people increased by 63,000 last month, youth employment fell by nearly 200,000. Job seekers look over recruitment announcements. / Photo courtesy of Yonhap News

The number of employed people nationwide increased by 63,000 last month compared to the same month last year. However, this is only about one-third of the level of the 183,000 increase recorded during the same period last year.

According to the "June 2026 Employment Trends" released by the National Data Administration on July 15, the number of employed people last month stood at 29,154,000, up 63,000 from the same month last year. While employment had shifted to a decrease for the first time in 17 months since December 2024 with a drop of 40,000 in May, it turned back upward.

Looking at the monthly employment growth, the figure maintained the 200,000 range with increases of 108,000 in January, 234,000 in February, and 206,000 in March, but fell to 74,000 in April and saw its upward trend broken with a decline of 40,000 in May.

By age group, employment among those in their 20s decreased by 199,000. On the other hand, those aged 60 and older (up 211,000), in their 30s (up 65,000), and in their 50s (up 3,000) drove the overall employment growth. The number of unemployed people stood at 834,000, up 10,000 (1.2%) from the same month last year. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from a year earlier at 2.8%.

By industry, service sectors showed strength, led by human health and social work services (up 214,000), while manufacturing (down 93,000), construction (down 67,000), and agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (down 95,000) remained sluggish. In the case of manufacturing, the scale of the decline was cut nearly in half compared to the previous month, but critics point out that because export growth continues to be centered on the semiconductor sector, which has a low employment inducement coefficient, the spread of warmth to the job market remains limited.

The economically inactive population reached 16,009,000, up 181,000 (1.1%) from the same month last year. By activity status, the population declined in childcare (down 73,000, -10.8%), but increased in housework (up 89,000, 1.5%) and schooling/training (up 117,000, 3.6%). The population in the "resting" category also rose by 5,000 year-on-year to 2,439,000. Among the economically inactive population, discouraged job seekers stood at 356,000, an increase of 16,000 from the same month last year.

Meanwhile, the government plans to fully respond to vulnerable sectors and sluggish industries to further solidify the upward trend in employment.

First, to improve youth employment conditions, the government will draft a tentative "Youth Job Recovery Plan" in the third quarter, which includes nurturing over 200,000 specialists in high-tech fields like AI and semiconductors and creating over 200,000 quality jobs in both the private and public sectors by 2030. Alongside this, efforts to strengthen job creation capacity across the entire economy will be carried out concurrently, such as actively driving the key tasks of the economic growth strategy for the second half of 2026, including the three mega-projects and the five-pole, three-special growth engines.

                                                                                                            Kim Bo-young