South Korea adds 292,000 wage jobs in Q1, led by welfare and hospitality
South Korea added 292,000 salaried jobs in the first quarter of 2026, with strong growth in the health and social welfare, accommodation and food service sectors offsetting losses in construction and manufacturing, official data showed Monday, Qazinform News Agency cites Yonhap.
The Ministry of Data and Statistics said the number of wage jobs reached 20.82 million in February, an increase of 292,000 from the same month a year earlier.
The latest figures showed that 74 percent of salaried positions were held by the same workers as a year earlier, while 15.3 percent were taken by new workers after previous employees retired or moved to other jobs.
Another 10.7 percent of wage jobs were newly created following the opening of new businesses or the expansion of existing companies.
The health and social welfare sector recorded the largest increase, adding 127,000 jobs year on year. Accommodation and food services followed with a gain of 59,000 positions.
The gains were partly offset by continued weakness in construction and manufacturing. Manufacturing wage jobs fell by 1,000, while construction jobs declined by 52,000.
Within manufacturing, the semiconductor industry added 5,000 jobs. However, employment in textile dyeing fell by 3,000, while the communications and broadcasting equipment industry shed 2,000 positions.
Wage jobs held by people in their 20s and younger declined by 76,000, while jobs for workers in their 40s fell by 19,000.
People aged 60 and above held 233,000 more wage jobs than a year earlier. Jobs for workers in their 30s rose by 115,000, while those held by people in their 50s increased by 40,000.
Earlier, Qazinform reported formal employment in Kazakhstan had grown by nearly 150,000.
