The reality of July’s ‘highest employment rate ever’
Part-time 2030, Rapid increase in those over 60… Split employment due to lack of holiday allowance
Full-time employment rate at all-time low… “Government’s claim of employment boom is an illusion”
《’Highest employment rate ever’ far from reality
The government recently announced employment statistics, emphasizing that the employment rate was the highest ever and the unemployment rate was the lowest ever. This is to emphasize that the employment situation has greatly improved. However, when this newspaper analyzed the statistics from Statistics Korea, it found that the number of employed people increased last month, mainly in ultra-short-term jobs of less than 15 hours a week. This means that the number of low-quality jobs for young people and the elderly has increased rapidly, creating an “optical illusion.” In addition, it was confirmed that the proportion of workers working more than 36 hours a week among all workers has fallen to the lowest level ever, showing that good jobs are continuously decreasing.
Mr. Park (35), who quit his job in April of this year and is preparing to change jobs, has been teaching swimming lessons three times a week for three hours a day at a swimming center in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do since last month. This is because he needed to earn living expenses as his re-employment preparations took longer than expected. Mr. Park said, “I enjoyed scuba diving since my 20s and fortunately I got a license as a sports instructor for daily life,” and “I wanted to work longer hours, but the center wouldn’t allow it.”
According to the July employment trend recently released by the government, the number of employed persons increased by 172,000 compared to a year ago, and the employment rate rose to a record high of 63.3%, while the unemployment rate fell to a record low of 2.5%. However, the increase in the number of employed persons was mainly due to ultra-short-term jobs for young and elderly people, leading to criticism that the government’s claim of an “employment boom” is nothing more than an illusion. As the domestic market froze and the minimum wage increased, small business owners increased “split employment” where they do not have to provide holiday allowances and annual leave, which is interpreted as an increase in part-time contract jobs.
According to the results of an analysis of the economically active population survey microdata by Statistics Korea conducted by this newspaper on the 23rd, the number of ultra-short-time workers working less than 15 hours a week last month was 1,803,000, accounting for 6.2% of all employed people (28,857,000). This is an increase of 128,000 from a year ago (1,675,000), and both the number of workers and the proportion are the highest ever as of July.
While employment in low-quality jobs is rapidly increasing, the number of people employed in high-quality jobs is rapidly decreasing. Last month, the number of full-time workers working more than 36 hours a week was 21,587,000, or 74.8% of all employed people. This is a decrease of 194,000 from a year ago, and the proportion of all employed people has also fallen to the lowest level ever.
This trend is more evident among younger age groups. Last month, the number of employed people in their 20s and 30s was 9,102,000, down 17,000 from a year ago, but the number of ultra-short-time workers (less than 15 hours) actually increased by 72,000 from 344,000 to 416,000. On the other hand, the number of workers in their 20s and 30s who work full-time (more than 36 hours a week) decreased by 193,000 from the same period last year to 7,284,000 last month.
The number of ultra-short-term workers is also rapidly increasing among the elderly over 60 years old. The number of ultra-short-term workers among the elderly increased by 58,000 from 909,000 in July last year to 967,000 last month. This means that there are many young people who are unable to find proper jobs after graduating from college and are working part-time, and that there are many elderly people who are unable to rest after retirement and are working part-time to make ends meet. Seok Byeong-hun, a professor of economics at Ewha Womans University, explained, “According to a report by the Korea Development Institute (KDI), the quality of a first job in our country has a long-term impact on future employment and wages,” and “The worsening quality of jobs for young people means that polarization in our society is bound to increase in the future.”
The phenomenon of foreign exchange in jobs is more clearly revealed in employment statistics by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). If calculated using the “full-time equivalent (FTE)” method that the OECD uses as official statistics, the number of employed people in Korea last month was 27,735,000, a decrease of 166,000 from a year ago. This is a result that is in contrast to the government’s official statistics, which show an increase of 170,000 in employed people. The government’s employment statistics count working just 1 hour a week as 1 employed person, but FTE counts 40 hours of work a week as 1 employed person. A person who works 20 hours a week is counted as 0.5 employed person. The number of employed people in their 20s and 30s last month (8,857,000) calculated using the FTE method also plummeted by 223,000 from a year ago.
Sejong = Reporter Jeong Soon-gu [email protected]
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2024-08-23 21:12:39