South Korea Job Situation Worsens

Amid an ever-worsening job market and lower-than-expected growth, South Korea’s youth unemployment rate reached its highest level since the country’s financial crisis situation in the late 1990s, government data showed Wednesday.

According to a Statistics Korea report on employment trends, the number of newly employed people stood at 26.9 million in August, up 3,000 from a year earlier. This on-year rise was the lowest since the 10,000 decrease recorded in January 2010, when the nation was reeling from the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Yonhap reported.

The jobless rate spiked to 1.13 million in August, up 134,000 from a year earlier and reaching its highest level for that month since 1999, when the unemployment rate peaked at 1.36 million amid the Asian Financial Crisis backwash.

Also, this marked eight consecutive months during which Asia’s fourth-largest economy saw a jobless rate of more than one million, according to the statistics office.

It was young people between the ages of 15 and 29 who felt the strongest impact. While the nation’s average unemployment rate stood at 4% in August, the corresponding figure for those aged between 15 and 29 was 10%, up 0.6% from the previous month—the highest figure for any August since 1999, when it was 10.7%.

The manufacturing sector shed 105,000 jobs on-year in August, having declined for the fifth consecutive month, and the retail business also saw a cut of 123,000 jobs.

“The prolonged slump in the automobile and shipbuilding sectors, which usually have high employment capacities, has exerted an influence on the retail and other related industries,” said an official from Statistics Korea.