SEOUL, June 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's economy faced an employment "shock" as the year-over-year job increase hit an eight-year low amid the high jobless rate among youths, a government data showed Friday.
The number of those employed was 27,064,000 in May, up 72,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest job growth since January 2010 when the figure reduced by 10,000.
Job market conditions continued to worsen as the on-year job growth hovered below 200,000 from February, before falling below 100,000 last month. It was the first time since the global financial crisis that the job growth fell below for four straight months.
Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, who doubles as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, convened an emergency meeting with ministers in charge of economic affairs to tackle the employment shock.
"The May employment situations are shocking," Kim said during the meeting. The minister noted that he and the whole economic team should feel responsible for the worsening conditions in the labor market.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May last year, said he would place his top priority on job creation, especially among the younger generation, but it had yet to take effect.
The Moon government unveiled a supplementary budget plan of 3.9 trillion won (3.7 billion U.S. dollars) to create some 50,000 decent jobs for youths this year, and to help laid-off workers in southern regions where shipbuilders and automakers are under the restructuring process.
GM Korea, the local unit of U.S. automaker General Motors, closed down one of its five factories in southern South Korea, drawing a gloomy picture for employment in the car-related sectors.
The number of those hired by manufacturers reduced by 79,000 in May, keeping a downward trend for the second consecutive month. Employees in the construction industry edged up 4,000, while those employed by lodging and eatery sectors maintained a downward trend for 12 months in a row.
Jobless rate, especially among youths aged 15-29, was shocking. The youth jobless rate was 10.5 percent last month, marking the highest May figure since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 1999.
The number of those unemployed was 1,121,000 in May, up 126,000 from a year earlier. The overall unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points over the year to 4 percent in May, the highest in about 18 years.
The so-called expanded jobless rate for youths, which reflect labor market conditions more accurately, came to 23.2 percent last month, marking the highest May figure since the related data began to be compiled in 2015.
The official unemployment rate refers to those who are immediately available for work but fail to get a job in the past four weeks despite efforts to actively seek a job.
The expanded jobless rate adds those who are discouraged to seek a job, those who work part-time against their will to work full-time and those who prepare to get a job after college graduation to the official jobless rate.
Employment rate stood at 61.3 percent in May, down 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier. The OECD-method hiring rate for those aged 15-64 was unchanged at 67 percent.
The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working-age population or those aged above 15. The employment rate is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government set its long-term target at 70 percent.
