{
  "id": 615387,
  "title": "Korea adds 108,000 new jobs in July; manufacturing employment remains weak",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/korea-adds-108-000-new-jobs-in-july-manufacturing-employment-remains",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-12T00:47:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20260812/korea-adds-108000-new-jobs-in-july-manufacturing-employment-remains-weak"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "South Korea's economy added 108,000 new jobs in July compared to the previous year, as reported by government data on Wednesday. This marks the second month in a row that the country has seen job growth. The total number of employed individuals reached 29.13 million in July, up from 29.02 million a year earlier. As per the Ministry of Data and Statistics, job growth turned positive in June, increasing by 63,000 after a decline of 40,000 in May, the first drop in 17 months. The jobless rate rose to 2.6 percent in July, a 0.2 percentage point increase from a year ago. The number of unemployed individuals totaled 776,000 last month, up by 50,000 from the prior year. However, South Korea's total employment rate dipped by 0.1 percentage point to 63.3 percent, marking four consecutive months of decline. The employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 stood at 70.3 percent, a 0.1 percentage point increase over the period. Conversely, the employment rate for those aged 15 to 29 fell by 1.6 percentage points to 44.2 percent, marking the 27th consecutive monthly decline for this age group.",
  "summary": "Korea added 108,000 jobs in July from a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday, marking the second consecutive month of gains, while manufacturing employment continued to remain weak. The number of employed people came to 29.13 million in July, compared with 29.02 million a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Job growth turned positive again in June,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "(URGENT) S. Korea adds 108,000 new jobs in July; manufacturing remains weak",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/11/urgent-s-korea-adds-108-000-new-jobs-in-july-manufacturing-remains",
        "published": "2026-08-11T23:00:02.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "Korea adds 108,000 new jobs in July; manufacturing employment remains weak",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/korea-adds-108-000-new-jobs-in-july-manufacturing-employment-remains-616232",
        "published": "2026-08-12T01:02:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}