Despite chip boom, Korea unlikely to hit goal of adding 150,000 jobs in 2026

To achieve the target, hiring must increase by an average of about 250,000 per month over the remaining three months of the year compared with the same period last year

Two students walk into a career center at a university in Seoul. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s job growth from January to September was the weakest in six years, as hiring continued to lose momentum despite expectations that a semiconductor-led boom would drive an economic rebound.

 According to September employment data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Sunday, the monthly average number of people over the age of 15 hired from January to September was 28.89 million, a year-on-year increase of 116,000.

 Excluding 2020, when employment fell by 144,000 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this marked the smallest increase in six years.

 The sluggish performance can be attributed to the hiring decline in key job-creating industries. While the entire manufacturing sector is struggling in the wake of the conflict in Iran, the semiconductor industry is the only sector enjoying the benefits of a boom. However, the semiconductor industry has a limited impact on job creation, which explains why the number of those hired in manufacturing fell by 51,000 compared to the same period last year.

The number of those hired in the construction sector also fell by 37,000 due to a slump in the sector. The professional, scientific and technical services sector, which is considered to have high AI exposure, saw a year-on-year decrease of 64,000.

 The government’s target of achieving a year-on-year hiring increase of 150,000, which it set in its economic growth strategy for the second half of the year in July, now appears to be overly ambitious.

 To achieve the target, hiring must increase by an average of about 250,000 per month over the remaining three months of the year compared with the same period last year. This means the monthly increase must exceed the growth of 234,000, the largest monthly increase of 2026, which was recorded in February, for three consecutive months.