The number of young people who are "just resting" has soared 12% in a year...Impact of bad news such as martial law and cold wave

At the end of last year, the number of young people who "just rest" surged by more than 12% from a year ago due to unfavorable factors such as the emergency martial law crisis and sluggish domestic demand.

According to the National Statistical Portal of the National Statistical Office, 410,000 people were "rested" among young people aged 15-29 last month.

The rested population is those who do not work or look for jobs without any apparent reason, and is classified as an inactive population.

The resting population increased by 12.3% compared to a year ago, and the increase is more noticeable considering that the total population of young people decreased by 3% during the same period.

Even in terms of annual indicators, the number of young people resting reached 421,000 last year, up 20,000 from a year ago, the highest since 448,000 in 2020.

As of December, the number of unemployed young people increased by 2,000 from the year before, and the unemployment rate rose 0.4%p from 5.5% in 2023 to 5.9% last year.

Youth employment indicators appear to have deteriorated as employment warmth gradually disappeared due to the COVID-19 base effect and the economic recovery was slower than expected.

In particular, the disappearance of the "end-of-year special" due to the combination of the December 3 emergency martial law incident, the Muan Jeju Airport disaster, and the cold wave has adversely affected employment indicators in December.