SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of South Korea's wage workers grew slower in the second quarter as lost jobs for those in their 20s and 40s offset a rapid growth in elderly jobs, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of wage and salary worker jobs totaled 20,839,000 in the April-June quarter, up 254,000 compared to the same quarter of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
The second-quarter increase was lower than the growth of 314,000 in the previous quarter, marking the slowest since the second quarter of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the east Asian country.
The number of paid workers for those aged 60 and older advanced 261,000 in the second quarter, with the figures for those in their 50s and 30s going up 124,000 and 59,000 respectively.
However, the readings for those in their 40s and under-20s dropped by 56,000 and 134,000 each.
Jobs in health and social welfare, business service and rental, and transport and warehousing industries climbed 130,000, 32,000 and 30,000 respectively, while those in the construction sector declined 31,000 in the cited quarter. ■