Hee-jin Ahn, Gounee Yang Global Economic News SOUTH KOREA’S employment rate, which sharply dropped due to COVID-19 pandemic, has fully recovered to its pre-pandemic level. The number of employed people was 1,199,000 as of April 30, up 494,000 (2.6%) year on year, according to the April employment report by South Korea’s labor ministry. The employment growth has recovered to the pre-pandemic level of 400,000. Since the number of newly employed people increased by 476,000 in December last year after the pandemic, the country has successfully maintained the job growth. The number of regular employees increased 264,000 (1.7%) and temporary workers 248,000 (13.4%) from a year ago. By company size, the number of employees working at companies with less than 300 employees was 16.128 million, up 425,000 (2.7%) year on year, and employees at companies with more than 300 employees was 3.06 million, up 69,000 (2.3%). By industry, employment increased 119,000 (6.1%) in the health and welfare industries, 67,000 (5.9%) in the science and technology service industries and 58,000 (5.4%) in the hotels and food industries. | 