Severe COVID-19-Induced Youth Employment Freeze... Increasing Number of Job Seekers Giving Up

249,000 Twenty-Somethings Giving Up on Job Searching Recorded

On the 19th, the government strengthened social distancing measures in the Seoul metropolitan area to curb the explosive spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Gatherings and events with more than 50 people indoors or more than 100 people outdoors are, in principle, prohibited until the 30th of this month. This applies not only to exhibitions, public hearings, commemorative ceremonies, and recruitment exams but also to private gatherings such as weddings, alumni meetings, 60th birthday parties, funerals, and first birthday parties, which cannot be held with many people present. Twelve types of high-risk facilities will be closed. These include clubs, room salons, and other entertainment bars, colatecs, danran bars, emotional bars, hunting pochas, karaoke rooms, indoor standing concert halls, indoor group exercise (intense GX types), buffets (including those in wedding halls), PC rooms, direct sales promotion centers, and large academies (with 300 or more people). The photo shows the scene of the Youth Street in Jonggak, Seoul, on that day. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Amid worsening employment conditions due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the youth employment market is freezing up more and more. The number of young people who have completely given up looking for jobs has also increased significantly.

According to Statistics Korea on the 1st, the number of employed people in August was 27,085,000, a decrease of 274,000 compared to a year ago. This marks six consecutive months of decline since March, when COVID-19 began to spread. The impact was especially severe among the youth aged 15 to 29 (-172,000), as face-to-face service industries were affected by COVID-19.

The number of discouraged job seekers was also highest among the youth. Looking in detail, among discouraged job seekers, those in their 20s numbered 249,000, the highest, followed by those aged 60 and over at 129,000, people in their 30s at 110,000, those in their 50s at 102,000, people in their 40s at 83,000, and those aged 15 to 19 at 9,000.

Discouraged job seekers are people who are not economically active, wish to be employed, are able to work, but have not sought jobs due to reasons related to the labor market, and who have had job-seeking experience within the past year.

Statistics Korea stated, "Young people mainly work in service industries that rely heavily on face-to-face interaction," adding, "Temporary jobs and others have significantly decreased due to COVID-19."

The problem is that the outlook for September is even more pessimistic. Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, stated, "It is expected that the impact of the strengthened social distancing measures nationwide will be significantly reflected in the employment trends for September to be announced next month."