Amid economic uncertainty, more people are staying longer in the same job, while fewer are finding new positions or switching companies. The share of workers making an ‘upward move’ from small and medium-sized companies to large corporations also declined from a year earlier. The ongoing fallout from weakness in manufacturing·construction is a major reason.

According to the ‘2024 Job Mobility Statistics Results’ released on the 4th by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the total number of workers registered in administrative records from public institutions, including the four major social insurance programs, was 26.25 million. This is an increase of 105,000 (0.4%) from a year earlier.

Although the total number of workers increased, labor market dynamism slowed markedly. The number of workers who kept the same job from 2023 into 2024 was 18.92 million, up 373,000 (2.0%) from the previous year (18,548,000). As a result, the job retention rate rose 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier to 72.1%.

By contrast, both those who found new jobs and those who changed jobs declined. ‘Entrants’people who were unregistered in the previous year and then found employmentnumbered 3,482,000, down 164,000 (4.5%) year over year. The entry rate also fell 0.7 percentage points to 13.3%. By age group, the decrease was largest among young people (ages 15∼29), down 73,000.

‘Movers’those who changed employersalso fell by 103,000 (2.6%) to 3,848,000. This is the second consecutive year, and only the second time since the statistics began, that both new entrants and job changers have decreased simultaneously.

This pattern is closely linked to weakness in key domestic industries. An official at the Ministry of Data and Statistics explained, “Both entrants and movers decreased due to sluggishness in construction and wholesale/retail,” and “In manufacturing as well, entrants fell by 61,000 (1.3%), raising the bar to get in.”

Among workers who successfully changed jobs in 2023 and 2024, 72.6% moved to companies of the same size as their previous employer.

By firm size, the share who moved from large companies to other large companies was 37.0%, down 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier. Conversely, the share who moved from large companies to small and medium-sized companies was 56.6%, a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous year (56.5%).

For workers at small and medium-sized companies, job changes were dominated by ‘moves within small and medium-sized companies.’ While 81.4% of job changers from small and medium-sized companies moved to another small and medium-sized company, the share making so-called ‘upward moves’ from small and medium-sized companies to large companies was just 11.8%. This was down 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, suggesting that barriers to entering large companies remain high for employees of small and medium-sized companies.

Among wage and salary workers who changed jobs, outcomes were mixed. Of those who moved, 57.8% went to positions with higher pay than at their previous job. In other words, more than half succeeded in changing jobs while raising their ‘market value.’ However, 41.3%roughly four out of tenmoved to jobs with lower pay than before.