Photo : YONHAP News
The employment rate gap between young people aged 15 to 29 and those in their 30s widened to a near‑record high last month.
According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Sunday, the employment rate for young people stood at 43-point-seven percent in April, compared with 81 percent for people in their 30s, a gap of 37-point-three percentage points.
The figure was just shy of the record 37-point-four percentage-point gap posted in March, the largest since data tracking began in June 1999.
The employment rate gap between the two age groups has expanded from the 20‑percentage‑point range in the 2000s to the 30‑point range in the 2010s, rising six-point-nine percentage points over the past four years since April 2022.
Youth employment conditions also lagged behind those of other age groups. The employment rate for people aged 30 and older was 23-point-three percentage points higher than that of young people, the widest gap in nearly eight years.
The employment rate for young people was also three-point-five percentage points lower than that of people aged 60 and older, marking the second‑largest gap on record.