Roundup: S.Korea’s employment growth slows in March
SEOUL, April 13– South Korea’s employment growth slowed down last month after topping 1 million for the past two months as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 reduced employment in the services industry, statistical office data showed Wednesday. The number of those employed totaled 27,754,000 in March, up 831,000 from the same…
SEOUL, April 13 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s employment growth slowed down last month after topping 1 million for the past two months as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 reduced employment in the services industry, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of those employed totaled 27,754,000 in March, up 831,000 from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
The year-over-year employment continued to rise for the 13th consecutive month, but it was down from the increase of 1,135,000 in January and 1,037,000 in February, respectively.
The Omicron variant spread led to the job reductions of 20,000 in the lodging and eatery sector and 32,000 in the wholesale and retail sector respectively last month.
The number of jobs in the finance and insurance sector shrank by 25,000 in March on a yearly basis, but the reading in the manufacturing industry gained 100,000 last month, the highest growth in over four years since January 2018.
Employment in the construction, the transport and warehousing, and the information and communications sectors expanded by 64,000, 81,000 and 81,000 each in the cited month.
The number of regular and irregular employees grew by 811,000 and 166,000 each, but the figure for daily laborers slumped 172,000 last month.
The number of the self-employed who hired workers was up 35,000 in March, and the reading for the self-employed without employees added 25,000.
Employment grew in all age groups. The number of jobs among those aged 60 or higher jumped 331,000, and the numbers for those in their 50s and 20s advanced 258,000 and 174,000, respectively.
The employment rate for those aged 15 or higher gained 1.6 percentage points over the year to 61.4 percent in March, and the hiring rate for those aged 15-64 went up 2.1 percentage points to 67.8 percent.
The number of those unemployed came to 873,000 in March, down 342,000 from a year earlier. Jobless rate declined 1.3 percentage points to 3.0 percent last month.
The expanded jobless rate went down 2.8 percentage points to 11.5 percent last month, and the reading for those aged 15-29 dropped 5.3 percentage points to 20.1 percent.
The official unemployment rate gauges those who are immediately available for work but failed to get a job for the past four weeks despite efforts to seek a job actively.
The expanded jobless rate adds those who are discouraged from searching a job, those who work part-time against their will to work full-time, and those who prepare to get a job after college graduation, to the official jobless rate.
The economically inactive population, who had no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, was down 277,000 to 16,592,000 in March. It kept a downward trend for 13 straight months.
The reading for discouraged job seekers diminished 220,000 from a year earlier to 464,000 in March.
The number of the “take-a-rest” group, who replied that they took a rest during a job survey period, shed 88,000 to 2,348,000 in the cited month.
The take-a-rest group is considered important as it can include those who are too discouraged to seek a job for an extended period. Enditem