S. Korea's job crisis amid COVID-19 taking harder hit on young people
- 4 years ago
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South Korea, like other countries, has seen massive job losses because of the pandemic.
Data show last month employment was down for a seventh month in a row... compared to last year.
Bearing the brunt of these losses are South Korea's young people, as our Eum Ji-young reports.
The COVID-19 outbreak is wreaking havoc on South Korea's job market.
According to job data released by Korea Development Institute on Wednesday, around 830-thousand jobs were lost last month amid the resurgence of COVID-19.
And the latest employment data from Statistics Korea shows that young people have been the worst hit by the jobs cull.
Young people between 15 and 39 saw huge on-year job losses in April, just after the first peak of COVID-19 in the country, and they saw more mass job cuts after another spike in cases in September.
( 1) In April, that age group had roughly 420-thousand fewer jobs than a year earlier, ( 2), and in September they had about 500-thousand fewer jobs on-year.
One expert says young people were hit hardest as the majority of them work in the service sector.
"Due to the risk of getting infected, demand for local service businesses plunged. Related jobs were lost at a fast pace and some of them were replaced with online or non-contact services."
He added that local service businesses related to healthcare, beauty, leisure, education and travel were hit hardest when there were surges in infections.
The biggest job losses in September were in the restaurant and lodging sectors, which recorded a 10 percent fall or 225-thousand fewer jobs last month than a year earlier.
About 62 percent of the on-year job losses in the restaurant and lodging sectors were among those aged between 15 and 39.
People in that bracket also accounted for about 85 percent of the on-year decline in education jobs.
The total number of jobs in the restaurant, lodging and wholesale sectors also hit a seven-and-a-half year low,... at around five-point-five million jobs.
It showed nine straight months of on-year decline as the self-employed in those sectors were also hit hard as a result of the stricter social distancing measures.
Eum Ji-young, Arirang News.
South Korea, like other countries, has seen massive job losses because of the pandemic.
Data show last month employment was down for a seventh month in a row... compared to last year.
Bearing the brunt of these losses are South Korea's young people, as our Eum Ji-young reports.
The COVID-19 outbreak is wreaking havoc on South Korea's job market.
According to job data released by Korea Development Institute on Wednesday, around 830-thousand jobs were lost last month amid the resurgence of COVID-19.
And the latest employment data from Statistics Korea shows that young people have been the worst hit by the jobs cull.
Young people between 15 and 39 saw huge on-year job losses in April, just after the first peak of COVID-19 in the country, and they saw more mass job cuts after another spike in cases in September.
( 1) In April, that age group had roughly 420-thousand fewer jobs than a year earlier, ( 2), and in September they had about 500-thousand fewer jobs on-year.
One expert says young people were hit hardest as the majority of them work in the service sector.
"Due to the risk of getting infected, demand for local service businesses plunged. Related jobs were lost at a fast pace and some of them were replaced with online or non-contact services."
He added that local service businesses related to healthcare, beauty, leisure, education and travel were hit hardest when there were surges in infections.
The biggest job losses in September were in the restaurant and lodging sectors, which recorded a 10 percent fall or 225-thousand fewer jobs last month than a year earlier.
About 62 percent of the on-year job losses in the restaurant and lodging sectors were among those aged between 15 and 39.
People in that bracket also accounted for about 85 percent of the on-year decline in education jobs.
The total number of jobs in the restaurant, lodging and wholesale sectors also hit a seven-and-a-half year low,... at around five-point-five million jobs.
It showed nine straight months of on-year decline as the self-employed in those sectors were also hit hard as a result of the stricter social distancing measures.
Eum Ji-young, Arirang News.