Motorbikes for food delivery are parked along a street in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) – There were more than 1.5 million gig workers who worked fewer than 15 hours a week in South Korea last month, setting a new record, according to the data from the Statistics Korea.
Including those on temporary leave, the number of workers with less than 15 work hours per week neared 2 million.
In other words, unstable and temporary jobs rather than high-quality jobs accounted for a substantial part of employment last month.
There were 1.54 million gig workers with weekly work hours below 15 hours, up 30,000 from a year ago, among those employed last month.
By age, those over 60 accounted for 49.5 percent or 763,000 of the gig workers employed last month, followed by those between 15 and 29 at 22.9 percent (352,000 workers).
The primary factor behind the hike in the number of gig workers, particularly among elderly people, was the increase in the number of people employed in the public sector.
According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the number of people employed in the public administration and public health welfare sectors, areas with a higher share of public jobs, rose by 320,000 last month, accounting for 37 percent of the growth of employed people.
Moreover, the employment of elderly workers over 60 years of age, a demographic group that is expanding rapidly, jumped by 424,000, playing a leading role in the growth of overall employed workers.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
