October 25, 2024

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A jobseeker checks job posts at a fair held in southern Seoul on May 31. (Newsis)

The number of young people not in education, employment or training, known as NEET youth, was at its highest last month for any July on record, revealing South Korea’s deepening troubles in the labor market.

The number of NEET Koreans who were found not to have actively sought jobs between the age of 15 and 29 stood at 443,000 in July, up 42,000 on-year, according to data from Statistics Korea. It was the highest figure for any July.

Between 2013 and 2017, the figure stayed below 300,000, but surpassed it in 2018. It peaked at 441,000 in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and later dropped to 361,000 in the following year. But in more recent years, it has been on the rise again, reaching 402,000 last year and over 440,000 this year.

The number of young NEET individuals is higher than those of other age groups. The NEET population in their 40s stood at 284,000 last month, followed by 288,000 in their 30s and 384,000 in their 50s.

Though the number of young people has been decreasing due to the low birthrate, the number of young NEET individuals has been on the rise, bringing up the NEET percentage in the population.

Among the 8.15 million youth population, NEET individuals took up 5.4 percent. The figure, which had stayed in the 2-percent range in the early 2010s, has fluctuated at around 5 percent in recent years.

According to additional data from Statistics Korea, 75.6 percent or 335,000 individuals of the youth NEET population responded “no” when asked whether they wanted to work or not.

Of those who responded they wanted to work, 42.9 percent cited the lack of quality jobs in terms of employment condition and wage as to why they were not searching for jobs.

Some 18.7 percent said they had looked for jobs but had not been able to find one in the past, 13.4 percent pointed to a lack of education or experience, while 11.1 percent said they were unlikely to find work nearby.

The rise of young NEET individuals brought the youth employment rate down to 46.5 percent in July, down 0.5 percentage points on-year.

The figure has been on the drop for three straight months, following a 0.4 percentage point decrease in June and a 0.7 percentage point decrease in May.

It also brought down the unemployment rate of the population by 0.5 percentage points to 5.5 percent, as the figure represents the ratio of unemployed individuals to the total labor force while excluding NEET individuals as they are a part of the economically inactive population.

On the other hand, the employment rate includes the economically inactive population in its calculation.

Meanwhile, the Korean government has been promoting the strength of the local job market.

The employment rate of people aged 15 or over jumped to 63.3 percent in July, up 0.1 percentage points on-year, while the jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 2.5 percent, data from Statistics Korea showed Wednesday.

Each figure marks the highest employment rate and the lowest unemployment rate for any July, the agency stressed.

The country added around 172,000 jobs last month, over 100,000 for the first time in three months since April, according to the data.

In November, the government announced it would inject nearly 1 trillion won ($738 million) to encourage young NEET individuals to return to the job market.

The government had attributed the increase in the youth NEET population to the lack of quality jobs, as more young people are choosing to remain unemployed rather than taking jobs that are perceived as unstable.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)