South Korea's Youth Labor Force Participation Falls In May

According to Yonhap, South Korea's labor force participation rate for people aged 15 to 29 fell in May from a year earlier as job hunting became more difficult amid economic uncertainty. The Ministry of Data and Statistics said the youth economically active population rate stood at 47.2% in May, down 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier, while the unemployment rate rose to 7.2% from 6.6%, with the number of unemployed youths reaching 266,000. The employment rate also slipped 2.4 percentage points to 43.8%.

The ministry said it took an average of four years and 5.7 months to complete college, including two-year degree programs, up 1.3 months from a year earlier and the longest since it began compiling the data in 2007. It said the increase appeared to reflect more students taking leave to prepare for jobs or professional license exams, according to Kim Rak-hyeon, director of employment statistics. Among graduates, 84.8% had held a job, down 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier, and 27% said their jobs were highly relevant to their degrees, down 0.3 percentage point. The share of young people who remained unemployed for more than a year after graduation rose to 48.6%, the highest since 2009.