SEOUL, November 4 (AJP) —Fewer young South Koreans were classified as “idle” in August, but whether the decline meant they had entered the workforce remained unclear, government data showed Wednesday.
About 680,000 people in their 20s and 30s fell into the resting category, down 83,000 from a year earlier, according to supplementary labor surveys released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The group comprised 377,000 people in their 20s and 303,000 in their 30s. Those classified as resting are neither employed nor actively seeking work and are therefore excluded from the official unemployment count.
The decline, however, did not necessarily signal an improvement in job prospects.
Among resting people aged 15 to 29, 35.2 percent cited difficulty finding the jobs they wanted, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier. The share among those in their 30s rose 5.0 percentage points to 32.3 percent.
It was the most frequently cited reason for resting in both age groups, while older respondents were more likely to cite health problems.
Across all ages, the resting population fell by 89,000 to 2.55 million. The broader economically inactive population, which also includes students, retirees and people engaged in household care, increased by 77,000 to 16.30 million.
Of those outside the labor force, 19.9 percent, or 3.24 million, said they wanted to find work or start a business within the next year, down 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier.
A separate survey pointed to another sign of difficulty entering the labor market.
Among self-employed people who had started their businesses within the previous year, 21.7 percent cited difficulty finding work as an employee, up from 17.9 percent a year earlier.
The number of such newly self-employed workers, however, fell to 305,000 from 331,000, suggesting that a greater share cited employment difficulties even as fewer people reported starting businesses.
Overall, non-wage workers, including the self-employed and unpaid family workers, increased by 71,000 to 6.63 million.
The changes varied by industry. Non-wage employment increased by 75,000 in wholesale and retail trade but fell by 47,000 in accommodation and food services and by 38,000 in manufacturing.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.
