Employment Up by 180,000, But It Is 'Someone Else's Story' for Young People

[Anchor]

Although the number of employed people increased by more than 180,000 last month, the job market felt by young people remains in the dead of winter. The youth employment rate has fallen for 28 consecutive months, and the unemployment rate has also hit a four-year high. To break through the narrow employment barrier, young job seekers—ranging from graduate students to soldiers about to be discharged—flocked to a job fair.

Chae Heesun reports.

[Reporter]

This is a job fair where recruitment briefing sessions and consultations are in full swing.

The footsteps of young people trying to grab even the slightest opportunity continue.

[Kim Min-jung / Hanam, Gyeonggi Province: I feel like it is a bit difficult to even pass document screenings, where if I submit about 20 applications, only 1 gets through. Even though I graduated from graduate school....]

Getting resumes and self-introductions checked to figure out why they keep failing,

[(What field are you preparing for?) I was thinking about overseas sales, but I felt like I wouldn't have enough competitiveness....]

Soldiers about to be discharged also took leaves and visited out of employment worries.

[Kim Ki-hyuk / Army Corporal: What I can do after being discharged... (Finding a job) is not easy, and even if you find a job, most end up getting a job at a workplace that doesn't really satisfy them....]

Last month, the number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at 29,151,000, an increase of 184,000 compared to a year ago.

This is the largest increase in five months since March.

However, the situation is different for the youth demographic.

The number of employed youth aged 15 to 29 decreased by 143,000 from a year ago.

This marks a decline for 46 consecutive months.

One might wonder if the number of employed people is decreasing simply because the youth population is shrinking, but the youth employment rate—which measures employed people relative to the entire youth population—also dropped by 1 percentage point from a year ago to 44.1%.

This is the 28th consecutive month of decline in the employment rate.

[Bin Hyun-jun / Director General of the Social Statistics Bureau at the Korea National Statistical Office: While there were increases in arts and sports, as well as finance and insurance, youth employment decreased in information and communications, health and welfare, and manufacturing....]

The youth unemployment rate stood at 5.4%, the highest for the month of August in four years since 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of young people who gave up looking for work and simply "rested" stood at 395,000, down 51,000 from a year ago.

The government evaluated this as a sign that an increasing number of young people are participating in vocational training and job-seeking activities, and stated that it will seamlessly push forward youth New Deal policies that provide vocational training and work experience.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Chae Heesun | Video by Lee Jae-young and Kim Min-chul | Video Editing by Yeojin Ahn | Design by Jo Soo-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.