In May, the number of workers at domestic enterprises increased by more than 200,000 from the same month last year, according to tallies. More than half of the increase came from the health and social welfare sectors.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) on the 30th released the May enterprise labor force survey that included these findings. As of the end of May this year, 20,701,000 people were working at enterprises with at least one worker. That is an increase of 202,000 from May last year. The gains have been growing this year, with 181,000 in January, 164,000 in February, 220,000 in March, and 228,000 in April.
The increase in enterprise workers in May was largest in health care and social welfare services, up 114,000. This includes residential welfare facilities such as hospitals and clinics and nursing homes. A labor ministry official said, "About 75,000 increased in social welfare services and about 40,000 in health care." As the older population grows, related industry employment is also seen to be rising.
In addition, employment increased in finance and insurance (32,000), public administration, defense and social security administration (26,000), and manufacturing (7,000).
By contrast, employment fell in wholesale and retail (-26,000), arts, sports and leisure-related services (-8,000), and construction (-3,000).
As of April, the wage aggregates per worker at enterprises with at least one regular employee totaled 4,031,000 won. That was up 61,000 won (1.5%) from a year earlier.
Of that, wage aggregates per regular employee were 4,294,000 won, up 79,000 won (1.9%) from the same month a year earlier. Wage aggregates for temporary and daily workers were 1,841,000 won, up 55,000 won (3.1%) over the same period.
Jeong Hyang-suk, head of the labor market survey division at the labor ministry, said, "If the aspect currently being discussed (at Samsung Electronics and others) of paying a certain share of operating profit as a performance bonus is reflected, the wage gap (by corporate size) will stand out significantly."