Youth employment rate falls for 28th straight month... Employment difficulties persist despite increase in jobs in August

The total number of employed people in August increased by 184,000 from a year earlier, but employment conditions for young people were found to have continued to worsen. According to the August employment trends released by the National Data Agency on the 9th, the youth employment rate stood at 44.1%, down 1.0 percentage point from the same month last year, and the number of employed young people also decreased by 143,000. The youth employment rate has fallen for 28 consecutive months, and as of August, it is the lowest level since 2020. The youth unemployment rate also rose to 5.4%, up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier, marking the highest level in four years since 2022. In contrast, as employment among people in their 40s and 50s increased, the overall employment rate rose to 70.4%. The National Data Agency explained that the weak employment performance in industries with a large share of youth jobs, such as information technology and manufacturing, had an impact. It also said that the number of job seekers increased due to applications for civil service exams, and that as some young people who had previously taken a break from job hunting returned to the labor market, the unemployment rate rose.