South Korea sees record youth unemployment in July

Data from Statistics Korea, the government agency responsible for managing national statistics, revealed that 443,000 individuals aged 15 to 29 were neither employed nor actively seeking work in July.

This marks an increase of 42,000 compared to the same period last year, representing the highest July figure since such statistics began being recorded, according to KBS World.

Around 335,000 of these young people, or 75.6% of the total, reported having no intention of looking for employment.

Unlike most unemployed individuals who actively seek jobs, these young people have stopped searching and are “taking time off,” despite not having any serious illnesses or disabilities.

The number of such youth remained around 200,000 from 2013 to 2016 but surged to 441,000 in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Yonhap reported.

The July figure also surpassed the number of unemployed individuals in their 30s and 40s, which stood at 288,000 and 284,000, respectively.