Number of temporary workers inches up in 2017

The number of temporary workers in South Korea rose slightly this year from 2016, with its percentage also gaining ground, government data showed Friday.

A total of 6.54 million workers were non-regular workers, part-timers and outsourced laborers as of August 2017, up 1.5 percent, or 98,000, from a year ago, according to the data by Statistics Korea.

They accounted for 32.9 percent of the country's salaried employees that totaled 19.88 million.

(Yonhap)

The 2017 data also showed 55.2 percent of them were women, while 23.5 percent and 21.5 percent of all temporary workers were in their 60s and 50s, respectively.

Nearly half of temporary workers, or 3.25 million, were hired by the private and public service sector, followed by 1.3 million in the retail, wholesale and accommodation businesses, and 777,000 in the construction field.

Their average monthly salary was 1.57 million won (US$1,400), up 71,000 won from a year earlier, compared to 2.84 million won for regular workers. (Yonhap)