Korea adds 707,000 jobs on-year in September

Job seekers attend a job fair in Seoul on October 11. [YONHAP]

Korea added jobs for the 19th straight month in September, data showed Friday, but the growth continued to slow for the fourth month in a row amid concerns over a recession.

The number of employed people stood at 28.38 million last month, up 707,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It was the largest on-year growth for any September since 1999.

The latest figure fell below the on-year rise of 807,000 tallied in the previous month.

"The number of employed people increased in September, but the growth has slowed," a senior Statistics Korea official said. "Since there are so many uncertainties, it is hard to predict (until when the growth will continue)."

The growth was mainly led by those aged 60 and above, which accounted for 451,000 of the on-year gain.

Korea's jobless rate, meanwhile, fell 0.3 percentage point on-year to reach 2.4 percent in September, the data showed, also the lowest for any September since 1999.

The rate among the age group from 15 to 29, however, rose 0.7 percentage point over the period to reach 6.1 percent.

The new jobs were mainly generated from the manufacturing, health care, welfare and hospitality industries, the data showed. In contrast, the number of people who got new jobs in the retail and financial sectors fell.

The latest data comes as the Korean economy faces concerns over stagflation, a mix of slowing growth and high inflation, amid the protracted war between Russia and Ukraine that led to soaring oil and commodity prices.

Yonhap