SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of South Korea's wage workers grew slower in the third quarter of last year as lost youth jobs offset a fast growth in elderly jobs, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of wage and salary worker jobs totaled 20,788,000 in the July-September quarter of 2024, up 246,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The third-quarter increase was lower than an expansion of 254,000 in the second quarter, marking the lowest third-quarter figure in six years since 2018.
The number of paid workers for those aged 60 and older jumped 274,000 in the cited quarter, with the figures for those in their 50s and 30s going up 119,000 and 66,000, respectively.
However, the readings for those in their 40s and under-20s dropped by 67,000 and 146,000 each.
Jobs in the health and social welfare, the transport and warehousing, and the business service and rental industries climbed 138,000, 31,000 and 30,000, respectively, while those in the construction and the real estate sectors declined 47,000 and 8,000 each in the cited quarter. ■
