Up to 850,000 job seekers in history… Over 70,000 job seekers in 2030 increased in one year

Input 2021.03.21 09:24

Last month, the number of job seekers was 853,000, a record high. This is due to the increase of more than 70,000 young people in their 20s and 30s a year.

According to the results of the analysis of employment trends and microdata from the National Statistical Office on the 21st, among the inactive population in February, the number of people ready for employment was 853,000, an increase of 83,000 (10.8%) from a year ago. This is the highest number as of February since 2003, when related statistics were written.

Employment preparers are those who take lectures at academies, institutions, etc. for employment, or prepare for other employment among the non-economically active population. By age, the number of people in their twenties was 589,000, the most. Their 30s were followed by 171,000.

Accordingly, last month, there were a total of 760,000 youth job seekers in their 20s and 30s, accounting for 89% of the total job seekers. Compared to a year ago, the number of job seekers in their twenties increased by 50,000 (9.3%) from 539,000 to 589,000. The number of job seekers in their 30s increased by 24,000 (16.3%) from 147,000 to 171,000.

Last month, the number of job seekers increased by 74,000 in their 20s and 30s alone. By gender, there were 472,000 male job seekers and 381,000 female.

Looking at only those in their 20s and 30s, the number of women in their twenties ready for employment has increased by 35,000 in one year. The number of job seekers in their 30s increased by 6,000. The number of job seekers in their twenties for men increased by 15,000 and the number of job seekers in their 30s increased by 18,000.

This is interpreted as the effect of the sharply frozen employment situation as the economy worsened after Corona 19.
Kim Kyung-hee, head of the employment statistics department at the Statistics Office, analyzed, “There are cases in which recruitment is delayed due to corona conditions, or the recruitment process is changed from regular recruitment to regular recruitment, so it seems that the number of people preparing for employment has increased.”

This’employment cold wave’ is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Since employment is a lagging indicator, even if the corona crisis subsides and the economy begins to improve, it is not immediately reflected.

In fact, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute for the top 500 companies with sales for the first half of 2021, 63.6% of the respondents were either unable to set up a new recruitment plan in the first half of this year or plan to hire no one. Six out of ten large corporations have no or undecided hiring in the first half of the year.