SEOUL (XINHUA) – South Korea’s employment growth slowed down last month after topping one million for the past two months, statistical office data showed yesterday.
The number of those employed totalled 27,754,000 in March, up 831,000 from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. The year-over-year employment continued to rise for the 13th consecutive month, but it was down from the increase of 1,135,000 in January and 1,037,000 in February.
Employment rate for those aged 15 or higher gained 1.6 percentage points over the year to 61.4 per cent in March.
The number of those unemployed came to 873,000 in March, down 342,000 from a year earlier. Jobless rate declined 1.3 percentage points to three per cent last month. The economically inactive population, those with no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, was down 277,000 to 16,592,000 in March.
