▲ Job search information posted at the Seoul Western Employment and Welfare Plus Center (File photo)
The number of non-regular workers hit a record high this year, driven largely by older adults aged 60 and above.
The average monthly wage gap between regular and non-regular workers widened further to 1.94 million won, marking the largest gap since data compilation began.
Statistics Korea announced the findings today (the 21st) in its "Supplementary Survey on Employment Types of the Economically Active Population Survey for August 2026."
As of last August, non-regular workers totaled 8,671,000, an increase of 103,000 from the same month a year earlier.
This is the largest scale since relevant statistics began in 2003, continuing an upward trend for three consecutive years starting from 2024.
Regular workers increased by 10,000 to reach 13,855,000.
This means that the vast majority (103,000) of the increase in wage earners (113,000) came from non-regular workers.
The proportion of non-regular workers among the 22,526,000 wage earners stood at 38.5%, up 0.3 percentage points from a year ago.
Surpassing the previous record high of August 2021 (38.4%), it reached an all-time high.
By age group, non-regular workers aged 60 and older increased by 135,000 to 3.18 million.
The proportion of those aged 60 and older among all non-regular workers rose 1.2 percentage points from a year ago to 36.7%.
This proportion is also at its highest level ever.
Non-regular workers aged 70 and older increased by 85,000 to 1.29 million.
This was 106,000 more than non-regular workers in their 40s (1,184,000).
Non-regular workers also increased in their 30s (39,000) and 50s (11,000), but decreased among those aged 29 or younger (-64,000) and in their 40s (-20,000).
Kim Rak-hyun, head of the Employment Statistics Division at Statistics Korea, analyzed, "Since the population is declining in the 15-29 youth bracket and the 40s age group, there is a fundamental effect of decreasing employment numbers," adding, "The employment situation itself is difficult for the youth, which seems to have partially influenced the decline in non-regular youth workers."
The industry with the highest number of non-regular workers was the health and social welfare sector (1,867,000), accounting for 21.5% of the total.
Looking at changes compared to the previous year, increases were seen in sectors such as health and social welfare (112,000) and accommodation and food services (43,000).
Decreases were recorded in information and communications (-24,000) and public administration (-22,000).
By employment type, fixed-term workers increased by 187,000 to 6,035,000, and part-time workers increased by 152,000 to 4,382,000.
On the other hand, non-standard workers decreased by 48,000 to 1,786,000.
Part-time workers accounted for 50.5% of all non-regular workers, the highest proportion since statistics began.
Part-time workers are defined as those whose scheduled working hours are even one hour shorter than workers performing the same type of work at the same workplace.
By gender, female non-regular workers numbered 4,963,000 and male non-regular workers 3,708,000, increasing by 46,000 and 57,000, respectively.
The proportion of women fell by 0.2 percentage points to 57.2%.
The average monthly wage of non-regular workers over the past three months (June-August) stood at 2,112,000 won, up 24,000 won from last year.
Regular workers saw an increase of 156,000 won to reach 4,052,000 won.
This is the first time the average monthly wage of regular workers has exceeded 4 million won.
While the wages for both groups are at their highest levels since statistics began in 2004, the increase for regular workers was larger, widening the gap from 1,808,000 won last year to 1,940,000 won this year—an increase of 132,000 won.
The wage ratio of non-regular workers relative to regular workers stood at 52.1%, down 1.5 percentage points from last year (53.6%).
Kim Rak-hyun explained, "Because part-time work is not full-time work, the wage level is lower," and added, "The increase in elderly workers aged 60 and older among non-regular workers also had an impact."
Excluding part-time workers, the average monthly wage of non-regular workers was 3,098,000 won, an increase of 61,000 won.
In this case, the difference from regular workers was 954,000 won, reaching 76.5% of the level of regular workers.
The overall average monthly wage for all wage earners was 3,305,000 won, up 100,000 won from a year ago.
The proportion of non-regular workers who voluntarily chose their employment type was 68.0%, up 0.2 percentage points from last year.
The reasons for voluntary choice were in the order of ▲ satisfaction with working conditions (59.9%), ▲ stable job (21.7%), ▲ job relocation, etc. (11.4%), and ▲ income commensurate with effort or adjustable working hours (7.0%).
The average tenure of non-regular workers at their current workplace was 3 years, an increase of 1 month.
Average weekly working hours increased by 1.3 hours to 29.5 hours.
Under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) comparison criteria, "Temporary Workers" numbered 6,345,000, an increase of 185,000 from last year.
The proportion of temporary workers among wage earners rose 0.7 percentage points from a year ago to 28.2%.
The OECD criteria include fixed-term, short-term, dispatched, and daily workers, but exclude part-time, service-contract, and special-type workers, resulting in some differences from domestic non-regular worker statistics.
Looking at the proportion of temporary workers last year, which allows for cross-country comparison, South Korea stood at 27.5%, higher than the Netherlands (25.8%), Japan (14.2%), Canada (11.8%), and Germany (11.5%).
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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