In a recently released employment report, South Korea has seen a modest increase of 108,000 in the number of employed individuals for January, representing the smallest growth in over a year. This marked an increase in the workforce to approximately 27.986 million people aged 15 and older, highlighting ongoing challenges in the labor market, particularly among younger job seekers where there was a decrease of 175,000. The increase in jobs for older individuals aged 60 and above was also curtailed, coming in at just 141,000, which is the lowest rise recorded since January 2021.

Several factors have contributed to this stagnant growth in employment numbers. Firstly, adverse weather conditions have affected the employment activity of older individuals and delayed the initiation of programs aimed at providing jobs for the elderly. This weather impact, coupled with a decline in various industrial sectors such as agriculture (-107,000 jobs), professional and scientific services (-98,000), and public administration, defense, and social security (-41,000), indicates significant headwinds faced across different areas of the economy which are reflected in the figures presented.

Moreover, the employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 increased slightly to 69.2%, up by 0.4 percentage points from the previous year, while the overall employment rate for those 15 and older remained stable at 61.0%. However, unemployment has risen to 1.211 million with an unemployment rate of 4.1%, a 0.4 percentage point increase from the previous year. The report also noted a significant rise in the number of individuals temporarily not participating in the labor force, particularly among the youth, where the number has reached its highest since January 2021 during the pandemic, reaching 469,000 young individuals who are not currently in employment or education.