S. Korea adds 184,000 jobs in August, but youth employment keeps sliding

The number of employed people rose by 184,000 last month from a year earlier, accelerating job growth. However, youth employment continued to struggle, with the number of employed people aged 15-29 falling by 143,000 and their employment rate dropping 1.0 percentage point.

According to the "August 2026 Employment Trends" report released by the Ministry of Statistics on Wednesday, the number of employed people aged 15 and older stood at about 29.15 million last month, up 184,000 from the same month a year earlier. That marked an acceleration of 76,000 from July's job growth of 108,000.

The employment rate for those aged 15 and older was 63.3 percent, unchanged from a year earlier. The employment rate for those aged 15-64 — the benchmark used for OECD comparisons — was 70.4 percent, up 0.5 percentage point.

By contrast, the employment rate for youth aged 15-29 was 44.1 percent, down 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier. The number of employed youth fell by 143,000 over the same period, while the youth unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage point to 5.4 percent.

By industry, employment in health and social welfare services rose by 186,000. Employment in arts, sports and leisure-related services and in business facility management and business support services also increased, by 73,000 and 45,000, respectively.

In contrast, employment in agriculture, forestry and fisheries fell by 109,000, while the accommodation and food service industry shed 61,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment also fell by 38,000.

The number of unemployed people last month stood at 588,000, down 4,000 from the same month a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 2.0 percent, unchanged from a year earlier. The economically inactive population totaled about 16.3 million, up 77,000.