South Korea's new youth employment gauge, which widens the age range to 34, still showed a worsening job market. Even with people in their early 30s included — a group with relatively stronger employment conditions — the jobless rate kept climbing. The existing measure covering ages 15 to 29 also pointed to continued weakness.
The jobless rate for people aged 15 to 34 stood at 4.2% last month, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the September employment data released on the 16th by Statistics Korea. The employment rate fell 0.4 percentage point to 56.1%, and the number of employed people dropped by 98,000.
The agency began publishing the additional figures for ages 15 to 34 this month following a revision to the special law on promoting youth employment. The previous youth benchmark covered ages 15 to 29. The new series includes people in their early 30s, who have relatively higher labor force participation and employment rates. The government plans to publish data for both age brackets in parallel for one year to preserve continuity in the time series.
Under the existing benchmark, the deterioration was more severe. The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 fell by 147,000 from a year earlier, a 47th straight monthly decline. The employment rate dropped 1.1 percentage points to 44.0%, falling for a 29th consecutive month. The jobless rate rose 0.6 percentage point to 5.4%.
Conditions were worst among people in their early 20s. The employment rate for those aged 20 to 24 fell 2.7 percentage points from a year earlier to 41.9%. Among those aged 25 to 29, it held at 71.7%, unchanged from a year earlier.
The chill in youth hiring stood out against all other age groups. Total employment rose by 113,000 last month, increasing for a fourth straight month. The employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 rose 0.2 percentage point to 70.6%, the highest level for any September on record.