Unemployment advantages in South Korea hit a historic peak final 12 months, surpassing even pandemic ranges, amid a downturn within the development sector.
The development business’s extended recession contributes to a 29-month decline in employment insurance coverage enrollments, signaling ongoing challenges for job restoration.
The likelihood can also be raised that this 12 months’s fee quantity might set a report excessive if the development business recession turns into extended.
In response to the “Labor Market Traits Based mostly on Employment Administrative Statistics for December 2025” introduced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on Jan. 12, final 12 months’s unemployment profit funds totaled 12.285 trillion gained. This determine surpassed 2021 (12.058 trillion gained), when the impression of COVID-19 was vital.
Unemployment profit fee quantities have a tendency to extend as employment situations worsen. Final 12 months’s development business employment state of affairs was significantly poor. Employment insurance coverage subscribers, which function job indicators, decreased within the development business for 29 consecutive months via December final 12 months.
The general stagnation of the employment market can also be pronounced. Based mostly on Work-Internet, final 12 months’s job-to-applicant ratio was 0.39, that means there have been solely 39 jobs per 100 job seekers. That is the bottom degree since 1999 (0.3), proper after the 1997 overseas alternate disaster. Cheon Kyung-ki, director of the Future Employment Evaluation Division on the Ministry of Labor, mentioned, “The development business funding growth scheduled for this 12 months is unlikely to right away result in employment restoration,” including, “Building business employment can be tough to rebound within the quick time period.”
