In this file photo, state unemployment benefit recipients get employment counseling at a state job placement center in central Seoul on April 13, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Employers have resorted to hiring irregular workers to minimize uncertainty in the pandemic era, a study showed Monday.
The Korea Labour and Society Institute analyzed data provided by Statistics Korea to show that the number of wage workers reached 20.99 million people in August of this year, up by 540,000 from the same month last year.
The number of regular workers rose from 11.94 million to 11.96 million, while irregular workers rose from 8.5 million to 9.04 million people, up by a whopping 530,000.
During this period, the overall percentage of irregular workers grew from 41.6 percent to 43 percent.
The number of irregular workers in August every year has continued to rise and drop since 2017 when the number reached 8.43 million people. This year, the number of irregular workers soared.
Among the irregular workers, 94.3 percent (8.52 million) are temporary employees, exposed to job instability.
An irregular worker’s average monthly pay stood at 1.8 million won (US$1,510), up by 3.9 percent from last year (1.73 million won). A regular worker’s average pay was 3.44 million won, up by 2.5 percent from last year (3.36 million won).
The wage ratio of irregular workers to regular workers stood at 52.2 percent, improving by 0.7 percentage points from last year (51.5 percent).
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
