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/Yonhap

Employment grew by more than 100,000 last month, but youth employment continued to show weakness. The number of employed young people fell by more than 190,000, marking a 45th consecutive month of decline, while the unemployment rate rose at its fastest pace in five years and six months.

According to the "July Employment Trends" released by the National Statistics Office on the 12th, the number of employed people aged 15-29 stood at 3.441 million last month, down 191,000 from the same month last year — a decline that has now continued for 45 straight months. The youth employment rate also fell to 44.2%, down 1.6 percentage points, extending its decline for a 27th consecutive month.

The number of unemployed young people also rose sharply. Unemployed youth totaled 251,000 last month, up 41,000 (19.5%) from the previous year. The youth unemployment rate rose to 6.8%, up 1.3 percentage points — the largest increase since January 2021 (1.8 percentage points).

A Ministry of Economy and Finance official said the youth employment rate continued to decline due to falling employment in sectors like manufacturing, adding that the government would swiftly prepare measures to revive youth employment, including training 200,000 workers for advanced industries and fields popular among young people, and creating 300,000 private and public jobs and startup opportunities.

The number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at 29.136 million last month, up 108,000 from a year earlier. The pace of employment growth had held in the 100,000-200,000 range from January to March this year before slowing to 74,000 in April, then turning negative with a decline of 40,000 in May. It turned positive again in June with growth of 63,000, and returned to the 100,000 range in July.

Still, it's difficult to say the overall employment situation has improved. The employment rate for those aged 15 and older stood at 63.3%, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous year, marking a fourth consecutive month of decline.

In particular, weak employment persisted in manufacturing and construction. Manufacturing employment fell by 68,000 from the previous year last month, marking a 25th consecutive month of decline. While the decline was smaller than June's drop of 97,000, the sector has failed to break out of its slump for more than two years. Construction employment also fell by 57,000, marking a 27th month of decline, while agriculture, forestry, and fisheries employment fell by 80,000.

The total number of unemployed people stood at 776,000, up 50,000 from the previous year, with the unemployment rate rising to 2.6%, up 0.2 percentage points.

                                                                                                             Lee Ji-hun