Seoul: South Korea's job growth hit a record low in 2024, primarily due to a downturn in the construction sector and demographic shifts, data revealed on Thursday. The nation saw an increase of just 60,000 jobs, or 0.2 percent, totaling 26.71 million jobs last year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
According to Yonhap News Agency, both the growth rate and the number of new jobs were the lowest recorded since the agency started compiling such data in 2016. From 2020 to 2022, job growth averaged around 800,000 per year but plummeted to 200,000 in 2023.
The further decline in job growth last year was largely due to a sluggish construction industry, which saw a reduction of 60,000 positions. The finance, insurance, transportation, and warehousing sectors also experienced job losses, while the health and social welfare sector added 130,000 jobs, largely driven by government-led care services.
Large corporations reduced their workforce by 80,000, bringing total employment in these companies to 4.43 million. Small and medium-sized enterprises also saw a decrease of 10,000 jobs, marking the first drop since record-keeping began.
By age group, workers in their 50s held the largest share of jobs at 6.43 million, or 24.1 percent of the total, followed by those in their 40s with 6.03 million and those in their 30s with 5.31 million. Jobs for individuals in their 20s decreased by 150,000 to 3.28 million in 2024, marking a second consecutive year of decline. The number of jobs held by workers in their 40s also decreased by 170,000.
In contrast, job numbers rose significantly among those in their 60s and 70s or older, with each group adding 150,000 positions, the data indicated. "The loss in jobs among people in their 20s was due to the population decrease in this age bracket and weaker new hiring, while the drop in employment of people in their 40s reflected both demographic trends and the slowdown in the construction sector," the agency stated.
The "jobs" figure in this data refers to positions held, which differs from employment statistics that count the number of individual workers.