AKP Phnom Penh, January 15, 2025--
South Korea's on-year employment growth slowed significantly in 2024, with fewer than 160,000 jobs added throughout the year, data showed Wednesday.
The number of employed people increased 159,000, or 0.06 percent, from a year earlier to 28.58 million in 2024, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.
Job creation had been more robust in the immediate post-pandemic period, with 816,000 new positions added in 2022. However, the pace of growth slowed to 327,000 in 2023 before declining further in 2024.
In 2024, the employment rate of people aged 15-64 rose 0.3 percentage point on-year to 69.5 percent.
In December alone, the country recorded a net loss of 52,000 jobs compared with a year earlier, a sharp contrast to the 120,000 jobs added in November.
This marked the first on-year decline in employment in three years and 10 months.

AKP-Yonhap