Youth unemployment highest on record for March

Korea’s youth unemployment hit its highest level on record for March while the economy added 300,000 new jobs in the same month, government data showed Friday.

The jobless rate for people aged between 15 and 29 stood at 11.8 percent in March, a slight decrease from a record high of 12.5 percent in February, according to the Statistics Korea.

The figure is the highest youth unemployment rate on record for March.

The additional 300,000 jobs in March, which brought the employment number to 25.8 million, is a rebound from 223,000 additional jobs in February, but a decline from 339,000 in January.

The overall unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 4.3 percent in March from a year earlier.

Statistics Korea’s employment statistics division deputy director Song Jun-haeng attributed a rise in youth unemployment rate in March to youth’s more active participation in seeking jobs, saying both the unemployment rate and employment rate went up. The employment rate among youth aged 15-29 went up 1 percentage point to 41 percent in March.

“As they had more desire for economic participation, some of them were counted for the unemployed, and the other, for the employed,” Song told The Korea Herald, adding that unemployment seasonally goes up during the January-March period when government exams are taken.

Hong Jun-pyo, a research fellow at Hyundai Research Institute, said although the economy added 300,000 new jobs in March, youth unemployment is “still very high.”

“Young people find it very difficult to land a job because of the build-up of manpower in the market,” Hong said.

Weak domestic demand, uncertain economic growth and sluggish corporate investment aggravate the job market for youth, he said.

Another notable figure is an increase in the number of discouraged workers, who gave up seeking jobs in the recent four weeks, but had sought a job within the past year.

The number of such people, who are not counted as the unemployed, rose by 3,000 to 431,000 in March from a year earlier.

By sector, the manufacturing industry added 124,000 jobs in March from a year earlier, and facility management and business support services, 98,000 jobs. The retail industry lost 142,000 jobs and the arts, sports and leisure industry shed 44,000 jobs in the same period.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)