COVID-19 first appeared in Korea in January 2020, reshaping our daily lives over nearly three years. The pandemic exerted a substantial influence on the labor market, resulting in a decline of 200,000 to 400,000 jobs in March 2020 compared to the same month the previous year. By January 2021, when the pandemic peaked in Korea, job losses approximated 1 million. Nevertheless, from March 2021 onward, employment trajectories showed a rapid ascent, and by September 2022, indicators seemed to have returned to pre-COVID levels.

Against this backdrop, this report poses three research inquiries. First, has the employment structure of our labor market undergone any transformation before and after the COVID-19 disruption? Second, while the quantitative recovery of employment is observed, has its quality, i.e., wage (income), been adequately restored to its preceding state? The purpose of these two questions is to determine if the employment shock caused by the pandemic disproportionately affected certain worker cohorts. The third query endeavors to identify factors external to the pandemic that might have exerted influence on the labor market, specifically exploring potential reasons for the observed deviation in recent employment patterns from historical trends.

This study sourced datasets spanning the 18th (2015) to the 24th (2021) series of the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS). The annual data was restructured into a quarterly format, thereby facilitating an analysis of employment dynamics across pre- and post-COVID intervals. Quarterly employment figures were derived from individual employment records curated by KLIPS to examine labor state transitions and associated income fluctuations within the quarterly timeframe. This quarterly analytical paradigm offered an advantage in capturing more short-term job transitions than annual data might have.

Preface
Executive Summary

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Literature Review
　Section 1 Employment Shock from COVID-19
　Section 2 Impact on Income Disparities

Chapter 3 Data Analysis
　Section 1 Construction of Quarterly Data
　Section 2 Basic Statistics and Characteristics of Quarterly Data

Chapter 4 Employment Transition Patterns Before and After COVID-19
　Section 1 Resignations Attributed to COVID-19
　Section 2 Trends in Employment Transition Rates
　Section 3 Age Distribution of Workers by Transition Type

Chapter 5 Changes in Labor Income and Wage Disparity Trends
　Section 1 Trends in Labor Income Changes Before and After COVID-19
　Section 2 Characteristics and Wage Disparities of Workers Who Resigned Due to COVID-19

Chapter 6 Conclusion and Implications
　Section 1 Summary of Analysis Results
　Section 2 Reevaluating Employment Contraction in 2019
　Section 3 Remaining Challenges

References
Appendix
ABSTRACT