July employment rises 108,000, but youth jobs plunge by 191,000

Total employment rose by more than 100,000 last month compared with a year earlier, but the number of young workers fell by more than 191,000, deepening a youth jobs crisis. The youth employment rate fell 1.6 percentage points while the youth unemployment rate climbed sharply.

The Ministry of Statistics released its July 2026 employment survey Wednesday, showing that the number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at about 29.136 million, up 108,000 from the same month a year ago. The employment rate for that age group fell 0.1 percentage point to 63.3%. The employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 — the OECD benchmark — rose 0.1 percentage point to 70.3%.

Despite the overall gain, conditions for young workers deteriorated. The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 fell 191,000 from a year earlier, pushing the youth employment rate down 1.6 percentage points to 44.2%. Workers aged 60 and older, by contrast, added 231,000 jobs, those in their 30s gained 65,000, and those in their 50s gained 33,000. The number of employed people in their 20s fell by 204,000.

Unemployment indicators for young people also worsened. Total unemployed persons numbered 776,000, up 50,000 from a year ago, lifting the overall unemployment rate 0.2 percentage point to 2.6%. Among youth, the number of unemployed rose 41,000 to 251,000, pushing the youth unemployment rate up 1.3 percentage points to 6.8%.

Weakness in sectoral employment persisted. Manufacturing shed 68,000 jobs, down 1.6 percent from a year earlier, while construction lost 57,000, down 3.0 percent. Agriculture, forestry and fishing fell 80,000, or 5.4 percent. Health care and social welfare services added 173,000 jobs, up 5.3 percent; arts, sports and leisure services gained 48,000, up 8.4 percent; and public administration, defense and social security added 46,000, up 3.5 percent.

By employment type, the number of permanent wage workers rose 71,000, while temporary workers fell 40,000 and daily workers declined 41,000. Self-employed workers with employees and those without each increased by 75,000, while unpaid family workers fell 32,000.

The economically inactive population reached about 16.103 million, up 99,000 from a year earlier. Among them, the number of people classified as "resting" — those neither working nor seeking work — declined among people in their 20s and 30s. The number of discouraged workers fell 18,000 from a year ago to 378,000.