South Korea’s employment recorded the lowest growth in 39 months due to a rapid fall in youth jobs, statistical office data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people aged 15 or older rose 80,000 over the year to 28,915,000 in May after growing from 261,000 in the previous month, according to Statistics Korea.

It marked the slowest increase in 39 months since February 2021, when employment turned downward. The overall job expansion was driven by the elderly. The number of jobs for those aged 60 or older advanced to 265,000 in May on a yearly basis, while the figures for those in their 30s and 50s gained 74,000 and 27,000, respectively.

Employment among those aged 15–29 dived 173,000 last month, posting the fastest reduction since January 2021. The number of jobs among manufacturers grew by 38,000 in the month, keeping an upward trend for the sixth straight month. Employment in the health and social welfare, the lodging and eatery, and the transport and warehousing industries picked up 94,000, 80,000, and 49,000, respectively. Jobs lost in wholesale and retail, business facility management and rent service, and the construction sectors stood at 73,000, 64,000, and 47,000, respectively.

The number of regular and irregular employees climbed to 75,000 and 249,000, respectively, but the reading for daily laborers dwindled to 116,000 last month. The number of self-employed who hired employees added 4,000, while the figure for the self-employed without workers retreated to 114,000. The employment rate for those aged 15 or higher was unchanged at 63.5 percent in May compared to the same month of last year, while the OECD-method hiring rate for those aged 15–64 rose 0.1 percentage points to 70.0 percent.

The number of unemployed people came to 884,000 in May, up 97,000 from a year earlier. The jobless rate mounted 0.3 percentage points to 3.0 percent. The expanded jobless rate swelled 0.3 percentage points to 9.1 percent in the cited month, while the corresponding rate for those aged 15–29 stood unchanged at 16.5 percent. The official unemployment rate gauges those who are immediately available for work but have failed to get a job for the past four weeks despite efforts to actively seek a job.

The expanded jobless rate, called the labor underutilization indicator, adds those who are discouraged from searching for a job, those who work part-time against their will to work full-time, and those who prepare to get a job after college graduation to the official unemployment rate. The economically inactive population, which had no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, lost 12,000 from a year earlier to 15,744,000 in May.

The reading for discouraged job seekers went up from 30,000 to 364,000 last month. The number of the “take-a-rest” group, who replied that they took a rest during a job survey period, increased from 87,000 to 2,334,000 in the same month. The take-a-rest group is considered important as it can include those who are too discouraged to seek a job for an extended period.