The number of temporary workers in South Korea rose in August from a year earlier as more elderly people joined the workforce, government data showed Wednesday.
The economic active population report by Statistics Korea showed the number of temporary workers rising by 194,000 on-year to a little more than 6.27 million in the cited month. The total accounted for 32.5 percent of all salaried workers, or a 0.1 percentage point gain from a year earlier.
The number of hourly, contingent and non-standard workers, who make up the country’s temporary workforce, all grew compared with the year before.
By age group, people over 60 who became temporary workers in the one-month period jumped 11.1 percent, or by 132,000, followed by 5.3 percent and 2.5 percent increases for people in their 50s and 20s, respectively.
On the other hand, the number of temporary workers in their 30s and 40s declined.
The number of women becoming part of the temporary workforce rose 4.3 percent, or 138,000, while the corresponding number for men moved up 2 percent, or 56,000.
The latest data showed that 49.3 percent of those that became temporary workers opted to do so voluntarily.
On average, these workers have been at there posts for 28 months and work 34.2 hours per week.
Touching on the data, the finance ministry said there was an increase in temporary workers in August, but the overall percentage of such workers to the total workforce stood unchanged at 32.2 percent.
The ministry, moreover, said that the wage gap between regular and temporary workers was on the decline.
The gap that stood at 11.8 percent in August 2013 dipped to 11 percent a year later and stood at 10.2 percent in August of this year, the ministry said. (Yonhap)
