Jeju employment rises by 12,400, but wage workers actually decline

【Financial News Jeju=Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 The number of employed people in Jeju rose by 12,400 in a year, but the number of wage workers actually fell by 200. Despite a higher employment rate and lower unemployment rate, the increase in employment was concentrated among non-wage workers, including the self-employed and unpaid family workers, following a different trajectory from the expansion of wage-paying jobs.
According to the “September 2026 Employment Trends in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province,” released on the 16th by the Jeju Office of the National Data Agency, the number of employed people in Jeju rose by 12,400 (3.1%) from the same month last year to 414,700. The employment rate rose 2.1 percentage points to 71.9%, while the unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 0.8%.
Despite the overall increase in employment, the number of wage workers declined. It fell by 200 (0.1%), from 276,500 in September last year to 276,300 this year. By contrast, non-wage workers—self-employed people and unpaid family workers combined—increased by 12,600 (10.0%), from 125,800 to 138,400.
The share of employed people who were non-wage workers also rose by 2.1 percentage points, from 31.3% to 33.4%. About one in three employed people works as either a self-employed person or an unpaid family worker rather than as a wage worker.
Self-employed people accounted for the largest part of the increase in non-wage workers. In September, there were 112,900 self-employed people in Jeju, up 8,000 (7.6%) from a year earlier. The number of self-employed people who ran their businesses alone, without employees, rose by 5,800 to 88,500, while the number who employed workers increased by 2,200 to 24,500.
The number of unpaid family workers—people who work without pay in a business run by their family—increased by 4,500 (21.5%) to 25,400. Their growth rate of 21.5% was about three times that of self-employed people.
There were also clear differences among wage workers by type of employment. The number of regular employees, who are generally employed for longer periods, fell by 1,900 (1.0%) to 191,100. Temporary employees also decreased by 1,700 (2.3%) to 72,000. In contrast, the number of daily workers rose by 3,400 (34.7%) to 13,200.
The increase in employment did not translate into longer working hours. The number of employed people working fewer than 36 hours a week rose by 13,000 (12.1%) to 122,000, while the number working 36 hours or more fell by 3,000 (1.0%) to 285,000. Average weekly hours worked also decreased by 0.8 hours, from 37.8 last year to 37.0 this year.

By industry, the decline in employment in wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food services—a major pillar of Jeju’s economy—was pronounced. Employment in the sector stood at 93,400 in September, down 5,700 (5.8%) from the same month last year. The average for the third quarter this year was also 94,000, a decrease of 7,000 (6.5%) from the same quarter a year earlier. This shows that employment losses were also evident on a quarterly basis in industries closely tied to tourism and consumer spending.
Employment in electricity, transportation, communications and finance also fell by 2,900 (7.0%) to 38,300. By occupation, the number of sales workers decreased by 3,500 (8.4%), and office workers by 3,200 (4.9%). In contrast, workers in managerial and professional occupations increased by 10,200 (14.0%), revealing divergent employment trends across occupations as well.
Construction had the highest growth rate. Employment in the sector rose by 8,400 (40.0%) to 29,400 in September. However, the base effect should be considered, as construction employment had fallen to 21,000 in September last year. In September 2024, the sector employed 28,000 people, meaning this year’s increase over that level was only about 1,400. This is why the construction sector’s recovery cannot be judged by its employment growth rate alone.
The weakness in Jeju’s service sector was also reflected in previously released production statistics. According to the National Data Agency’s regional economic trends for the second quarter of this year, service-sector output nationwide increased by 4.5% from the same period a year earlier, while Jeju’s declined by 3.0%. Jeju was the only one of the country’s 17 cities and provinces to record a decline in service-sector output.
Caution is also needed before concluding that monthly figures point to a long-term deterioration in the employment structure. On average in the third quarter this year, the number of wage workers in Jeju rose by 3,000 (1.2%) from the same period a year earlier. Over the same period, non-wage workers increased by 9,000 (6.6%). Non-wage workers recorded the larger increase over the quarter as a whole, but the decline in wage workers was limited to September.
The number of unemployed people fell by 2,700 (44.3%) from the same month last year to 3,400. The labor force increased by 9,800 to 418,100, while the economically inactive population—those neither working nor seeking a job—fell by 9,200 to 158,900.
The definition of an employed person should also be considered when interpreting employment statistics. The Economically Active Population Survey counts as employed, among others, people who worked at least one hour for pay during the reference week or worked at least 18 hours without pay in a family business. The unemployed are people who have no job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks and are available to start work immediately.
Jeju’s labor market saw the number of employed people and the employment rate improve alongside an expansion in self-employment and family labor, a decline in regular and temporary employees, and an increase in employed people working shorter hours. Further examination of changes by employment status and industry-specific hiring and wage data is needed to determine whether the improved employment indicators translated into actual wages and income and sustained job growth.


[email protected] Jeong Yong-bok Reporter