South Korea’s labor market posted a modest recovery in June, with total employment rising by 63,000 from a year earlier, according to government data released Wednesday.
The figure marks the first year-on-year rebound in two months, signaling a tentative stabilization in the broader workforce despite persistent headwinds in key industrial sectors.
The headline improvement, however, masks continued fragility within the manufacturing base.
Jobs in the manufacturing sector continued to decline, reflecting the ongoing pressure from weakening external demand that has weighed on the country’s export-oriented industries.
This divergence highlights a labor market where service and other non-industrial segments are absorbing the slack left by the industrial slowdown.
The data arrives against a backdrop of decelerating growth in the manufacturing sector, which expanded for the seventh consecutive month in June but at a slower pace, according to recent Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data.