SEOUL, Feb 10 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s employment dropped 982,000 in Jan, from a year earlier, marking the highest fall in over 22 years, since Dec, 1998, statistical office data showed today.
The number of those employed totaled 25,818,000 in Jan, according to Statistics Korea. The year-on-year employment continued to slide for 11 straight months since Mar, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic resurged here since Nov. In the latest tally, the country reported 444 more cases for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 81,930.
The daily caseload was up from 303 of the previous day, rising to above 400 in six days.
People refrained from outside activity amid the COVID-19 resurgence, hitting hard the services industry.
The number of jobs in the lodging and eatery, and the wholesale and retail sectors, dived 367,000 and 218,000 each in Jan from a year earlier.
Employment in the association, society and other private services sector declined 103,000 last month, but those in the transportation and warehousing and the public administration, defence and social welfare administration, gained 30,000 and 20,000, respectively.
The number of those unemployed was 1,570,000 in Jan, up 417,000 from a year earlier. It was the highest since relevant data began to be compiled in June, 1999.
The jobless rate advanced 1.6 percentage points over the year to 5.7 percent in Jan.
