About 20 percent of young adults begin employment as contract workers with positions that last less than a year, an indication that the nation’s youth labor market is worsening, according to data released by the National Statistics Office.

The government agency conducted an economic activity census and found that about 761,000, or 19.5 percent of young adult workers, began working under such conditions.

This indicates that since the financial crisis, regular positions are being replaced with short-term contract jobs, and thus the employment situation hasn’t improved for young adults, according to officials.

The rate of young adults whose first job was as a contract worker with a position that lasted longer than a year was 3.1 percent in 2014, around half the rate in 2008 (6.4 percent).