South Korea's unemployment rate hits all-time low

SEOUL: South Korea's unemployment rate hit an all-time low last month, but the pace of job growth slowed down for the third month in a row amid economic uncertainties, new data revealed on Friday.

The number of employed people stood at 28.41 million in August, up 807,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It is the highest on-year rise for any August since 2000, when the country added 848,000 jobs from the previous year, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The country's job market has improved markedly after being hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of employed people constantly rising since March last year.

But the growth slowed down for the third consecutive month, from 935,000 jobs added in May to 841,000 jobs in June and to 826,000 jobs last month.

The slowdown in the job growth came as South Korea is facing multiple economic challenges, such as high inflation and slowing growth, amid external uncertainties over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and global monetary tightening.

The country's jobless rate fell 0.5 percentage point on-year to 2.1 per cent in August, the lowest level since the statistics agency adopted the current data compiling methods to analyze the job market in 1999.

The employment rate of people aged 15 and older rose 1.6 percentage points on-year to 62.8 per cent in August, the highest for any August since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 1982, according to the data.

The number of economically inactive people -- those who are neither working nor actively seeking jobs and people outside the labour force -- reached 16.25 million in August, down 3.1 percent from a year earlier.

It marked the 18th consecutive month of an on-year fall.

The number of permanent workers grew 907,000 on-year last month, while that of temporary workers and daily labourers fell 78,000 and 97,000, respectively.

The increase in job posts for older adults led the overall growth.