Jeju ranks No. 1 nationwide in employment rate, but job openings rise just 0.6% as jobseekers increase 7.5%

【Financial News | Jeju — Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 Job-seeking applications in Jeju rose 7.5%, but new job openings at companies increased by just 0.6%. Jeju has the highest employment rate nationwide, but hiring demand is failing to keep pace with demand from people seeking work.
On the 15th, according to the Korea Employment Information Service’s Employment Administration Statistics (EIS), Jeju had 941 new job openings last August, up 0.6% from the same month a year earlier. Meanwhile, new job-seeking applications totaled 3,242, an increase of 7.5%.
The trend differed from that of the national labor market. Over the same period, nationwide new job openings totaled 160,690, up 4.0%, while new job-seeking applications numbered 351,827, down 0.2%. Job openings rose as job-seeking applications fell nationwide, but in Jeju the increase in job-seeking applications far outpaced the rise in job openings.
The gap is also evident in the openings-to-jobseekers ratio, which compares demand for jobs with the number of people seeking work. Jeju’s ratio was 0.29, 0.17 below the national average of 0.46. That amounts to roughly one new job opening for every 3.4 new job-seeking applications registered on Employment 24.
The openings-to-jobseekers ratio is calculated by dividing the number of new job openings by the number of new job-seeking applications. A lower figure means companies are recruiting for fewer positions relative to the number of registered job-seeking applications. It does not, however, indicate the actual competition for jobs or the hiring success rate.
Jeju’s overall employment indicators are strong. According to the National Data Agency’s August Economically Active Population Survey, the number of employed people in Jeju was 415,000, up 12,000 from the same month a year earlier. The employment rate was 71.9%, the highest in the country, while the unemployment rate stood at just 0.8%.
However, employment trends varied by industry. Employment in wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food services—the mainstays of Jeju’s economy—fell by 7,000. By contrast, employment in construction rose by 7,000, while business, personal and public services and related industries added 8,000 jobs.
Employment status also warrants a closer look. The number of non-wage workers, including the self-employed and unpaid family workers, rose by 8,000 to 136,000. Wage workers increased by 5,000 to 278,000.
This means the overall increase in employment did not come solely from companies expanding new hiring. It is why the employment rate, which reflects the number of people already working, must be distinguished from job-opening statistics, which indicate companies’ demand for new workers.
Nationwide, too, a gap is emerging between existing employment and demand for new hires. According to the report “September 2026 Labor Market Trends as Seen Through Employment Administration Statistics,” released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 14th, the number of people enrolled in employment insurance nationwide reached 15.93 million, up 288,000 from the same month a year earlier.
In accommodation and food services, the number of people enrolled in employment insurance rose by 55,800, but the number of new job openings on Employment 24 fell by about 2,700. This shows that demand for new hires can decline even as the existing number of employed people increases.
Nationwide, new job openings in September totaled 170,000, up 2.7%, while the number of new jobseekers fell 5.6% to 357,000. The openings-to-jobseekers ratio also rose to 0.48, from 0.44 in the same month last year.
The key challenge for Jeju’s labor market is to maintain its high employment rate while expanding actual job opportunities. With employment in tourism and retail declining as the growth rates of job openings and job-seeking applications diverge, it is necessary to assess hiring volumes by industry, wages, working hours and actual employment outcomes together.
In particular, it is important to determine whether the lower openings-to-jobseekers ratio stems from companies cutting back on hiring or from a mismatch between the occupations jobseekers want and companies’ needs. The time has come to examine more closely the changes in Jeju’s labor market, which are difficult to assess based on rising employment numbers alone.


[email protected] Jeong Yong-bok Reporter