Long-term unemployment rate on the rise

Recent unemployment statistics show a mix of positive and negative trends depending on age group and social and economic strata. Despite increasingly low jobless rates since the overall economic recovery from the foreign currency crisis, the middle-aged and the

long-term unemployed are facing more difficulties in securing jobs than ever before.

According to `Employment trends in June,¡¯released July 20 by the National Statistical Office, the nation¡¯s jobless rate registered 3.6 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from the month before, while the number of the jobless stood at 793,000, down 35,000.

These figures are the lowest since February 1999, when the jobless rate was 8.6% and the number of jobless reached 1,781,000, in the midst of a severe economic recession. This is also the first time since December 1997 that the number of the unemployed declined below

1 million. At the beginning of this year, the number of the jobless declined steadily for five months in a row, breaking the lowest unemployment rate record for two consecutive months.

By age, the number of unemployed in their 20s and 30s declined by 13,000 and 22,000, respectively, but the situation was not nearly as rosy for those in their 40s and 50s. The combined number of the jobless in this age group increased by 5,000 from the previous

month.

Meanwhile, the long-term unemployed, people who have been seeking jobs for more than one year, posted a month-on-month gain of 5,000 to 20,000, accounting for 2.5% of the overall jobless. This figure increased by 0.7 percentage point from a month ago. Out of all wage

earners, the number of temporary workers increased by 0.4 million or 9.6% from the previous year, far exceeding the increase of full-time workers (3.6%), which reflects the deteriorating employment structure.

With employment status showing signs of bipolarization, the government set out to prepare

countermeasures, including the readjustment of job training programs for the unemployed.