코로나, 청년 일자리부터 덮쳤다…4월 42만개•9월 50만개 증발<br /><br />South Korea is facing a severe job crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />The nation's employment market is now showing seven consecutive months of on-year decline.<br />Adding to the woes, data shows South Korea's young people bearing the brunt of the hardships.<br />Eum Ji-young reports.<br />The COVID-19 outbreak is wreaking havoc on South Korea's job market and it is taking an especially big hit on employment among young people.<br />According to the latest job data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, young people between 15 and 39 saw the largest on-year decline in April and September due to the surge in COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic.<br />In April, that age range had roughly 420-thousand fewer jobs than the year earlier, while the corresponding number in September was more than half-a-million.<br />All age brackets except for people over 60 saw a drop in April and September.<br />An official at Statistics Korea said young people were hit hardest as the majority of them work in the service sector, which requires face-to-face interaction.<br />The biggest job losses in September were in the restaurant and lodging sectors, which recorded a 10 percent fall or 225-thousand fewer jobs last month than a year earlier.<br />The wholesale and retail industry and the education industry saw 207-thousand and 151-thousand job losses respectively.<br />About 62 percent of the on-year decline in the restaurants and lodging sectors were those between 15 and 39.<br />People in that bracket accounted for about 85 percent and 23 percent of the on-year decline in the education and wholesale and retail industry respectively.<br />The number of jobs in the restaurant, lodging and wholesale industry also hit a seven-and-a-half year low.<br />It showed 9 straight months of on-year drops as the self-employed in those sectors were also hit hard as a result of the stricter social distancing measures.<br />Eum Ji-young Arirang News.<br />
