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The number of new wage jobs for young adults in South Korea dropped in the second quarter to the lowest amount since 2018, data showed on Sunday. 

Those in their teens and 20s received employment at 1.45 million new jobs in the April-June period, down 8.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The tally marked the lowest amount since the statistics agency began keeping such records in 2018, reports Yonhap news agency.

Meanwhile, South Korea added more than 254,000 wageworker jobs in the second quarter of this year, but the number grew at a slower pace, while the number of job openings for young people continued to fall for nearly two years.

The number of paid employee jobs came to 20.84 million as of May 2024, up from 20.58 million a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The country has seen slowing on-year employment growth since the first quarter of 2022, when newly added jobs for wage earners reached 752,000 after the COVID-19 pandemic.

By age, jobs for those in their 20s and younger fell 134,000, or 4.2 percent, from a year earlier to 3.06 million, the seventh quarterly decrease, and the number of paid job positions for those in their 40s dropped 56,000 to 4.44 million in the second quarter.

In contrast, 261,000 jobs were added for people in their 60s and older to bring the total to 3.78 million, and people in their 50s and 30s also saw such jobs increase by 124,000 and 59,000, respectively, from a year before.

By sector, the health and social welfare segment had 130,000 more paid worker jobs, and the food and accommodation field had 23,000 more jobs in the second quarter. Hiring in the manufacturing sector rose by 28,000, the data showed.