The June unemployment figure came as what a top economic policymaker called a "pleasant surprise." A report from Statistics Korea showed an increase of 472,000 jobs from a year ago―an increase that, if sustained, would ease joblessness to a tolerable level before long. It was one bright spot in the nations' murky economic performance.
The employment rate, or the percentage of the labor force that is employed, was at 60.3 percent―the highest in 35 months. Given this robust labor market, Minister of Strategy and Finance Bahk Jae-wan could hardly be blamed for making an overstatement when he welcomed the June job increase as a "pleasant surprise."
Still better, the employment figure had been increasing month on month for five consecutive months―certainly not an ordinary development. The employment rate had also been on the rise since the second quarter of this year―from 59.3 percent in April to 60.1 percent in May and 60.3 percent in June, the highest since July 2008.
The government believes the trend will continue in the months ahead as both domestic demand and exports remain strong. The optimism is shared by private think tanks. A senior researcher with the Samsung Economic Research institute is quoted as saying the trend is expected to continue at least until the end of the third quarter, adding that the number of jobs yet to be filled stands at 110,000.
Figures show the quality of employment was improving as well. For instance, the number of temps declined by 100,000, while that of regular workers increased by 627,000.
But hidden behind this pleasant surprise were some depressing facts. Among them was a decline in the number of employed people in their 20s and 30s―83,000 and 7,000, respectively. The jobless rate for people in the 15-to-29 age group remains high at 7.6 percent though it dropped by 0.7 percentage point from a year ago.
Another problem was that 26,000 people were added to the economically inactive population, or the population of people not desiring to work or incapable of working. In the case of people who gave up on the idea of searching for jobs, the number increased by 3,000 to 215,000.
Many of these and other employment problems, however, will be addressed if the employment outlook proves to be as bright as the government and private economic research institutes believe.
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