SEOUL-- The recent sharp job growth in South Korea was mostly driven by increased employment among youngsters and senior citizens, a central bank report said Thursday.

"The economically-active population has exceeded pre-pandemic levels," the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in the report. "In particular, increased labor supplies by youths and senior citizens have played a major factor behind the increase in the number of people employed."

Earlier government data showed that the number of employed people came to 28.49 million in June, up 841,000 from a year earlier. This marked the largest job addition in 22 years for the month.

The BOK report said that younger people aged 15-29 and senior citizens aged 60 or older mostly drove the recent job creation, though it did not provide detailed figures.

Of them, employment among senior people expanded mostly at small businesses with fewer than 30 employees and in farming, forestry and fishing sectors apparently due to other age groups' reluctance to work in such areas.

Women accounted for 67.5 percent of job growth seen among younger people in the first half of this year, the report showed.

The report, however, noted that government-arranged jobs, mostly short-term work, saw their ratio for employment among senior citizens down from 19.8 percent in the first two months of this year to 5.9 percent in the March-June period.

The report predicted that job growth among young and senior people will not likely grow as fast going forward amid worries about a coronavirus resurgence and an economic slowdown.

Source: Yonhap News Agency