Unemployed people topped 1 million in the first quarter of this year. It is the first time in five years the number has exceeded 1 million, and 1 in 4 unemployed people were counted as young people.
According to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) and the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) on the 19th, the average number of unemployed people in the first quarter of this year was 1,029,000. That is an increase of 49,000 from the first quarter of last year. On a first-quarter basis, it topped 1 million for the first time since 2021 (1.38 million).
First-quarter unemployment recorded 1.38 million in 2021 and then fell in 2022 (990,000) and 2023 (918,000). But it began rising in 2024 (960,000), continued in 2025 (980,000), and increased for the third straight year this year.
Among the unemployed, the youth group (ages 15–29) numbered 272,000. That is 26.4% of all unemployed people. Youth unemployment increased by 10,000 from a year earlier. As a result, the youth unemployment rate was 7.4%, up 0.6 percentage points (p) from the same period last year. That is the highest level since 2021 (9.9%), when COVID-19 was widespread.
As for this trend, the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) said it is due to an increase in the number of applicants for civil service exams and delays in some regions in direct job-creation programs. People who do not currently have a job but are actively looking for work are classified as unemployed within the economically active population. In addition, people in the "took a break" category who were not seeking work must go through the unemployed stage of job seeking to move into employment, and the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) noted this as another reason for the increase in the unemployed population.
Meanwhile, employed youth in the first quarter numbered 3,423,000. That is down 156,000 from the first quarter of last year. It marks a decline for 14 consecutive quarters and is the smallest level since statistics were first compiled in 1980.