This file photo taken May 16, 2023, shows job seekers looking at job information posted on a bulletin board during a job fair in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) — More than one out of three South Koreans who changed jobs in 2021 experienced a wage decline amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday.
The number of registered employees who were eligible for state insurance programs came to 25.49 million in 2021, up 2.7 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
Of them, 2.19 million people changed jobs, and 36.4 percent of them moved to lower-paying jobs, the data showed.
Some 44.6 percent of those in their 60s who changed jobs in 2021 earned less, and the proportion among those in their 50s came to 40.7 percent, followed by people in their 40s with 36.8 percent.
The largest rate of the job-changing workers, or 12.2 percent, saw their wage fall less than 250,000 won (US$191), followed by 7.2 percent earning between 500,000 won and 1 million won less, according to the agency.
South Korea added the most jobs in seven years in 2021 following a sharp fall the previous year amid the pandemic.
(Yonhap)
