Signal Korean manufacturing sheds 151,000 jobs to 2033 even as chips, chemicals and machinery grow

Summary

KEIS places manufacturing within a broader shift toward services, projecting a decline in the country's largest single employer. Manufacturing employment is expected to fall from 4.461 million in 2023 to 4.310 million in 2033, a loss of about 151,000. Its share of total employment would slip from 15.7 percent to 15.0 percent over the same decade. The aggregate hides divergence, because technology-linked branches such as semiconductors, chemicals and machinery are expected to add workers. Business facility management, support and rental services, whose fortunes track manufacturing and other industries, is projected to ease from 1.431 million to 1.424 million.