Dae-min Jung, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

THE number of new employees increased by more than 1.13 million last month, representing a continued employment recovery for 11 consecutive months. The increase rate was the highest in more than 21 years.

In January last year, new employment saw a sharp drop by 982,000, which partly contributed to the increase this year. Analysts also say that industrial changes such as digital transformation had an impact on this year’s employment.

According to the “Employment Trend in January 2022” report released by Statistics Korea, the number of newly employed people increased by 1,135,000, or 4.4 percent, to 26,953,000 last month.

It was the first time in 21 and half years that the increase in number of newly employed people exceeded 1 million since July 2000 (1.03 million).

The number of employed people has keptd decreasing for a year from March 2020 to February last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It didn’t begin to increase until March last year.

In December last year, it recorded the largest increase of 773,000 for the first time in seven years and 10 months, before the increase future expanded last month.