62% Increase in Number of People Giving Up Job Hunting

The number of people giving up finding a job rose 62% in recent four months due to the economic downturn.

It was found that the growth rate of the number of labor force and employed workers during the second quarter (April to June) was minus for the first time since 1999, the aftermath of the Asian financial meltdown.

According to `Employment Trend in August` released by the National Statistical Office Thursday, the unemployment rate went down 0.1% last month compared to July and the number of unemployed was dropped by 25,000 to reach 756,000.

It was because college students returning to schools after their summer vacations and those giving up job hunting were counted as non-labor force.

In August, the number of people giving up finding jobs was 117,000, up 15.8% from 101,000 in July, and up 62% from 72,000 in May.

Reflecting the economic slowdown, the total number of people landing a new job dropped 2.5% and 2.4% in the manufacturing and construction sectors respectively. The downward trend was witnessed in all industries while the total number of newly hired was down by 1.5% from July to reach 221,260,000. Labor participation rate was also dropped 1.0% to reach 61.2%.

As a growing number of people give up getting a job, the number of labor force and newly employed decreased by 57,000 and 120,000 respectively year on year during the second quarter.

Jung Jin-ho at the Korea Labor Institute said, ˝In line with the trend, this year`s unemployment rate was revised upward by 1% to 3.4%. The number of newly hired this year is expected to be 0.01%, the lowest in the recent five years.˝

Non-labor force refers to people who have ever searched for a job in the recent one-year among those who are willing to work and capable of working but not hired.

Ki-Jeong Ko Kyung-Joon Chung koh@donga.com news91@donga.com