Last month, the number of unemployed was 1.57 million. It is the largest number of people ever. Nearly one million jobs disappeared in a year. This is the aftermath of the third spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), which has been continuing since last November.
January employed, the largest decline in 22 years
Corona 3rd shock overlaps with cold weather
Food, lodging, public alba hire direct hit
On the 10th, the National Statistical Office released a’employment trend’ report with this content. In January this year, the number of employed was 25818,000, a decrease of 982,000 (-3.7%) from a year ago. This is the largest decline in 22 years and 1 month since December 1998 (-1283,000 people) during the financial crisis. This is more than last year’s April (-476,000 people) and October (-421,000 people), when the impact of the 1st and 2nd spread of Corona was great.
The number of employed has been decreasing for 11 months since March last year. It has reached a record of 16 consecutive months in 1998-99.
Nearly one million jobs disappeared. Graphic = Reporter Kim Young-ok [email protected]
Jobs declined at all ages. Those in their 60s or older (-15,000 people) are no exception. Despite the coronavirus crisis last year, the number of employed people in their 60s or older increased by nearly 200,000 to 400,000 (compared to the previous year), partially offsetting the employment shock. This year, even this trend has disappeared.
This is because even the elderly’s jobs have dried up due to the spread of the coronavirus, and the government’s public and welfare work programs have also ended in winter. This is the first time since February 2010 (-40,000) that the number of employed people in their 60s or older has decreased. This is the limit of the tinkering-style employment policy represented by the’public ambulance’.
By industry, jobs in the lodging/restaurant business (-367,000 people), wholesale/retail business (-218,000 people), and other service businesses (-103,000 people) have decreased significantly. Chung Dong-myeong, head of the Social Statistics Bureau of Statistics Korea, analyzed, “Since December 8 of last year, as the step of raising distance has continued, the number of employed people, mainly in the face-to-face service industry, has continued.
As jobs disappeared, the number of unemployed people increased dramatically. In January this year, there were 1.57 million people, up 417,000 people (36.2%) from the same month last year. The most unemployed people were after the statistics were written in 1999. The unemployment rate soared to 5.7%. It was up 1.6 percentage points from a year ago. The number of non-economically active population (inactive population) was 17.8 million, the highest since the production of statistics in June 1999. Among them, 2715,000 people answered that they were resting for no other reason. It is also the largest since related statistics began to appear in 2003.
Professor Kim So-young of the Department of Economics at Seoul National University said, “There is a trend of economic improvement mainly in the manufacturing industry, but it is not a situation that will lead to an improvement in the employment index.” did.
Sejong = Reporter Cho Hyun-sook [email protected]