South Korea's employment growth slowed significantly in April, according to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday. The report indicated that the number of new jobs added in April was only 74,000, marking the weakest performance since December 2024, when there was a year-on-year decrease of 52,000 jobs. This slowdown comes in the wake of rising oil prices due to Middle East conflicts, which have dampened consumer confidence. In February and March, job additions remained in the 200,000 range.
The unemployment rate in April stood at 2.9%, unchanged from the same period last year. The number of unemployed individuals was 853,000, a decrease of 2,000 compared to the previous year. According to Jin10, employment in the healthcare and social welfare services sector increased by 261,000 year-on-year, while the arts, sports, and leisure-related services sector saw an increase of 54,000 jobs. The real estate sector added 49,000 jobs.
Conversely, the scientific and technical services sector experienced a record decline in employment, with a reduction of 115,000 jobs, attributed to the base effect from strong employment growth in previous years. The manufacturing sector also saw a decrease of 55,000 jobs. Statistics Korea noted that the scientific and technical services sector's employment decline was the largest since it was separately categorized in 2013.