SEOUL, Nov 11 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s employment loss hit the highest in six months, amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, statistical office data showed today.
The number of those employed came in at 27,088,000 in Oct, down 421,000 from the same month last year, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the fastest fall since Apr.
The job loss continued for eight months running, with contractions of 195,000 in Mar, 476,000 in Apr, 392,000 in May, 352,000 in June, 277,000 in July, 274,000 in Aug and 392,000 in Sept.
The number of those unemployed was 1,028,000 in Oct, up 164,000 from a year earlier.
Jobless rate rose 0.7 percentage points over the year, to 3.7 percent in Oct, marking the highest Oct reading since 2000.