Quality jobs on the decline

The number of jobs at large and medium-sized companies that youth prefer for high stability increased at the lowest rate in six years last year. Even the scale of new hiring at public institutions has halved in five years, falling below 20,000 last year. With the number of quality jobs declining, young people who gave up looking for work exceeded 420,000 last year. Many voice the need for fundamental measures to increase ‘quality jobs.’

According to Statistics Korea on Monday, the average monthly number of employees at large businesses with 300 or more employees last year was 3.146 million, an increase of 58,000 from the previous year and the smallest increase in six years since 2018 (50,000). The increase in employment at large businesses was 182,000 in 2022 but was halved to 90,000 in 2023 and decreased by 36% last year.

Job seekers tend to prefer to seek jobs at large companies. The cutback in hiring in special manufacturing industries was also noticeable. Last year, the number of workers in the manufacturing industry decreased by 6,000 year-on-year. It has decreased for the second year since 2023 (-42,000).


세종=정순구 soon9@donga.com