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Korea adds more than 200,000 jobs for first time in 13 months in May

Published: 11 Jun. 2025, 08:51 Updated: 11 Jun. 2025, 14:31

A job seeker looks at notices at a welfare center in western Seoul on March 17. [YONHAP]

Korea added 245,000 jobs in May, marking the first time in 13 months that employment grew by more than 200,000, government data showed Wednesday.

The number of employed people stood at 29.16 million last month, up 245,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

May marked the fifth consecutive month of job growth, following a brief decline in December, when the country posted a net loss of 52,000 jobs.

Since then, the labor market has shown signs of steady recovery, with net gains of 135,000 jobs in January, 136,000 in February, 193,000 in March and 194,000 in April.

However, employment in the manufacturing and construction sectors continued to slump, reflecting lingering weakness in the key industries.

Yonhap