Jobless rate falls in May, 274,000 new jobs added

Korea’s unemployment rate edged down in May from a month earlier as more people found work in the private and public service sectors and in the financial and telecommunications industries, a government report showed yesterday.
The jobless rate stood at 3.2 percent last month, compared with 3.4 percent in April, the report by the National Statistical Office said.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate stood at 3.4 percent for May, up slightly from 3.3 percent the previous month. The latest findings also showed the number of employed people rising in May by 274,000 year-on-year to 23.75 million.
“We had expected the number of new jobs to reach 300,000, but bad weather caused moderate gains in construction related jobs,” said Jeon Sin-ae, head of the office’s population and social statistics bureau.
The 300,000 mark is important because the government said this figure must be reached to absorb the number of workers hitting the market. This target has not been reached for the last nine months.
She said, however, that with the monthly employment rate reaching a record 60.7 percent and the number of unemployed people down 0.5 percent year-on-year to 779,000, there is a possibility that more jobs could be created in coming months. Yonhap