Results of Last Month's Establishment Labor Force Survey
Decline in Employees Across Both Export and Domestic Industries
Amid overall unfavorable economic conditions, the number of employees in manufacturing, construction, and wholesale and retail sectors declined last month. In particular, the number of employees in the manufacturing and construction sectors has decreased for 20 consecutive months and 11 consecutive months, respectively, with the rate of decline widening.
According to the "May 2025 Establishment Labor Force Survey Results" released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on June 26, the number of employees at establishments with at least one employee stood at 20,299,000 last month, which was similar to the same month of the previous year. The number of employees at establishments had shown a modest decline for four consecutive months since January, but rebounded last month.
By industry, manufacturing, which accounts for the highest share of employees at 18%, saw a decrease of 12,000 employees. This marks a 20th consecutive month of decline. In January (-17,000) and February (-10,000), manufacturing saw declines in the tens of thousands, and while the decrease appeared to narrow to the thousands in March (-2,000) and April (-6,000), the number fell again by tens of thousands last month, widening the decline.
The number of employees in construction decreased by 104,000, marking an 11th consecutive month of decline. Although the construction sector appeared to see a narrowing decline from February to April after a drop of 109,000 in January, the decrease widened again to over 100,000 last month. Kim Jaehoon, head of the Labor Market Survey Division at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, explained, "It is clear that the situation in the construction sector is very poor," adding, "There is little sign of a rebound."
Industries closely tied to domestic demand, such as wholesale and retail (-29,000) and accommodation and food services (-7,000), also saw declines in employee numbers. In contrast, the number of employees increased in health and social welfare services (87,000), professional, scientific and technical services (18,000), and real estate (15,000).
With both hires and separations declining last month, the labor market showed signs of slowing. The number of new hires was 864,000, down 6.6%. The number of separations was 843,000, a decrease of 6.0%. As a result, the hiring rate (4.5%) and separation rate (4.4%) both fell by 0.3 percentage points.
In April, the nominal total wage per worker at establishments with at least one regular employee was 3,971,000 won, an increase of 2.7%. After a 5.4% decrease in total wages in February, there was a recovery in March (3.1%), but the rate of increase slowed in April. The total wage per regular employee rose by 2.8% to 4,215,000 won, while for temporary and daily workers it decreased by 3.1% to 1,786,000 won.
The real wage per worker, reflecting price levels, was 3,412,000 won, up 0.6%. Real wages continued to rise after a 2.1% increase in October last year, but after a sharp drop of 7.3% in February, they recovered in March (1.1%) but the growth rate remained relatively low.
In April, the average working hours per worker at establishments with at least one regular employee was 165.5 hours, up 6.1 hours (3.8%). The number of working days in the month increased by one, from 21 to 22. The average working hours per regular employee was 174.2 hours, an increase of 6.5 hours (3.9%). For temporary and daily workers, the figure was 87.3 hours, a decrease of 0.2 hours (-0.2%).
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