코로나에 취업자 넉달째 감소…6월 기준 실업률 1999년이후 최고
We begin with the impact of COVID-19 on Korea's employment market.
The country saw fewer jobs for four consecutive months due to the pandemic.
Unemployment rate in June was the highest for the month of June since 1999... and the number of those unemployed hit a record high.
Our finance correspondent Eum Ji-young starts us off.
Due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea has seen a four-month-long downward trend in the number of people in work.
This is the first time since between October 2009 and January 2010 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis that the figure has been lower on-year for four months in a row.
According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of employed people was around 27-million-55-thousand,... down 352-thousand from the same month a year earlier.
The unemployment rate in June was 4-point-3 percent,... the highest for the month of June since records began in 1999.
The number of unemployed for the month of June also reached an all-time high since 1999.
Apart from people aged over 60, all age brackets saw a decrease in the number of people employed and the employment rate.
Breaking it down by sector, the biggest job losses were found in the restaurant and lodging sectors which saw 186-thousand job losses,... down seven-point-nine percent on-year.
But an expert says the employment rate will improve this fall.
"Number of new kind of discoveries of COVID-19 patients declined a little bit. If that continues down to the fall, I think significant pick up in manufacturing, significant pick up in service industry will be expected."
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a social media post on Wednesday that he is worried about the situation and is taking it seriously but added that it is showing signs of recovery when compared to April and May as the size of the decrease is getting smaller.
"The finance minister also said he will try to speed up projects to create more than 570-thousand jobs in the third COVID-19 supplementary budget as well as accelerate the Korean New Deal projects. Eum Ji-young Arirang News."
