South Korea’s jobless rate inched down in November from a month earlier, but the rate of jobs added to the economy quickened for the first time in three months, a government report showed Wednesday.
The country’s jobless rate stood at 3.1 percent last month, down from the previous month’s 3.2 percent, according to the report from Statistics Korea.
The number of employed came to 25.97 million in November, up 438,000 from the same month last year. This is the first on-month rebound in job growth since August, the report showed.
“Employment grew, centering on health, social welfare services and the manufacturing sector, along with the construction area bolstered by growing home transactions,” said Sim Won-bo, head of the agency’s employment statistics division.
The finance ministry expected that the job growth will top 500,000 this year, beating its earlier target of 450,000, citing more jobs available in service and manufacturing sectors.
The report showed that health and social welfare added 158,000 jobs last month compared with a year earlier, while builders employed 84,000 more workers, the report showed. Manufacturers also saw their payrolls rise 102,000, with the wholesale and retail sector gaining 136,000 jobs.
The agricultural, forestry and fisheries sector, however, employed 85,000 fewer workers than a year earlier due to seasonal factors.
Labor market conditions for younger people remained tougher than for other age groups.
The report showed that the unemployment rate for those aged 15-29 was 7.9 percent in November, down from 8 percent tallied a month earlier. It was still higher than the previous year’s 7.5 percent.
The so-called labor underutilization rate edged up to 10.2 percent from the previous month’s 10.1 percent, showing that the overall employment conditions might be much worse than the jobless figures indicate.
The underutilization rate reflects the number of people who are underemployed and those who currently hold part-time jobs but want full-time work. It also includes people who are jobless and have given up looking for work, not by choice but by circumstance, which still makes them potential job seekers.
The agency started to provide the indicator in November in a bid to provide a more accurate picture of the country’s labor market situation. (Yonhap)
