Number of Employed People Sees 'First Decline' Since Martial Law; 'AI Employees' Infiltrate Job Market

[Anchor]

Dark clouds are gathering over the job market. Last month, the number of employed people aged 15 and older fell by 40,000 compared to a year ago. This marks the first decline in 17 months since December 2024, when domestic demand froze in the aftermath of the emergency martial law. Due to the impact of the Middle East war, 140,000 manufacturing jobs have evaporated, and the decline in the youth employment rate was the sharpest in five years. There are growing concerns that the job market could become even more restricted as artificial intelligence replaces human tasks.

Reporter Hong Young-jae has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a startup that creates mobile virtual space experience content.

As the company's situation deteriorated rapidly early this year, it laid off 80% of its staff.

The vacancies were filled by AI.

Using tools like GPT and Claude, the company built an AI system capable of development, design, and sales analysis.

[Song Chan-woo / Development Team Leader, Unique Good Company: Agent AIs collect information on events or pop-up stores happening in the vicinity.]

Although the staff size dropped from 45 to 9, the company's operations have returned to a normal track.

[Song In-hyuk / CEO, Unique Good Company: A customer service representative can talk directly to an agent and say, 'This seems to be a problem, please check it,' and it oversees the company's entire development, planning, and design...]

As the trend of AI replacing human jobs is being felt across workplaces, the number of employed people in professional, scientific, and technical service sectors—which include research and development, IT services, law, and accounting—fell by nearly 90,000 last month compared to a year ago, continuing a six-month downward trend.

Young people are feeling the changes in the hiring market firsthand.

[Job Seeker (Computer Science Major): There are no new graduate open recruitments. As (AI) tools appear and become more advanced, companies are demanding that entry-level applicants perform tasks that would normally require at least three years of experience...]

Last month, the employment rate for the youth demographic fell by 2.4 percentage points compared to a year ago, with the number of employed youth dropping by 255,000.

This is the largest decline since January 2021, when the impact of COVID-19 was significant.

With the combination of shifts in industrial structure, a corporate preference for experienced workers, and the Middle East war, job postings have become difficult to find.

[Bin Hyun-jun / Director of Social Statistics Bureau, National Data Agency: I think the group most directly affected would be young people who need to find new jobs.]

In response, the government plans to swiftly implement core tasks of the Youth New Deal and promote specialized training for young professionals.

(Reported by Kim Seung-tae | Video by Jung Yong-hwa | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung | VJ by Jung Han-wook)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.