Bleak Job Market

[Anchor Lead]

Youth unemployment has reached an all-time high in Korea. Meanwhile, job growth has remained steady at the 200,000 mark for two consecutive months. The situation in the job market remains rather bleak.​​
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Despite the icy weather, the Noryangjin area in Seoul is busy. Every day is a struggle for the public service exam applicants. They have their hands full these days submitting their applications and waiting for written exams. Some 160,000 people have applied for the additional exam for local public officials of category 9, and more than two thousand people applied for the Korea Coast Guard exam. So far, the youth unemployment numbers did not include job seekers who had been solely preparing for exams. But now that they have applied for exams and are actively looking for jobs, the youth unemployment rate reached 9.2 percent for the month of November. The perceived youth unemployment rate is even higher - 21.4 percent. Both indices are the highest for November thus far.

[Soundbite] Bin Hyun-jun(Statistics Korea) : "The official youth unemployment rate soared as many people applied to the additional public service exam following the execution of the supplementary budget."

The overall unemployment rate has climbed to 3.2 percent. And job growth remains stagnant. In November, only some 250,000 new jobs were added compared with the same period a year ago, failing to surpass the 300,000 mark for the second consecutive month. The good news is that the number of new jobs in the manufacturing sector surged by 46,000, posting an increase for six straight months. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance has vowed to focus its economic policy strategies next year on increasing jobs to resolve young people's job woes.