1 in 5 unemployed 'long-term unemployment'... More than half of the young people are blue.

20% of the 'long-term unemployed' over 6 months of job search period

The total number of unemployed has recently decreased, and the proportion of long-term unemployed has increased.

One-quarter of the reasons for quitting their previous job are 'complaints about working conditions'

Wholesale and retail businesses (18.9%) are the most quitted jobs.

[Anchor]
Among the unemployed, the proportion of "long-term unemployed" who have been looking for jobs for more than six months but still haven't found a job has exceeded 20%.

In particular, more than half of them were young people in their 30s or younger, who were in the middle of working.

Reporter Kim Ki-bong reports.

[Reporter]
As of August, according to the National Statistical Office, 113,000 of the 564,000 unemployed in Korea had a job search period of more than six months.

The share was 20%, the highest in 25 years since August 1999 when the foreign exchange crisis hit 20.1%.

The share of all unemployed people has increased every month this year, with the recent increase growing to account for one in five.

The total number of unemployed people has decreased since July, but the proportion has soared as the number of long-term unemployed people has increased.

The average number of long-term unemployed people per month in the first eight months of this year was 98,858, up 448 from the same period last year and 13% from the same period last year.

In terms of age group, 32.4% were under the age of 29, 23.3% were in the 30s, and young people under the age of 30 accounted for 55.7% of all long-term unemployed.

The reason for the increase in the number of long-term unemployed is the so-called "job mismatch" that does not match the desired jobs.

24.7% of the reasons for quitting their previous jobs were complaints of working conditions such as hours and pay, nearly 26.4% of the reasons for expiring contracts.

The unemployment rate has fallen to around 1%, but the "quality of employment" shows that there is much room for improvement.

[Kim Sung-hee / Professor of the Graduate School of Labor at Korea University] It is not about finding very top-notch jobs, but finding some sustainable jobs and mid-level jobs that can make a living, and it is not easy to find such jobs. Because of that reality....]

By industry, wholesale and retail businesses account for 18.9%, which seems to be largely affected by online purchases and unmanned stores.

The increase in long-term unemployment is analyzed to further dampen the vitality of the Korean economy, and the Bank of Korea has published a study that said, "If the unemployment period is extended by one month, the employment probability drops by 1.5 percentage points."

I'm Kim Ki-bong of YTN.

Edit Video: Electronic
Design: Ji Kyung-yoon