Roundup: S. Korea's jobless rate rises to 5-year high amid slow employment

South Korea's jobless rate rose in February to the highest in five years amid slow growth of job creation, a government report showed Wednesday.

Unemployment rate gained 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 4.6 percent in February, the highest since February 2010 when it recorded 4.9 percent, according to Statistics Korea.

The unemployment rate among those aged 15-29 was 11.1 percent in February, the highest since July 1999 when the figure posted 11. 5 percent.

The so-called "sentiment" jobless rate, which the statistics agency began to unveil from November 2014, was 12.5 percent in February, up from 11.9 percent in January.

The official unemployment rate gauges the percentage of those unemployed who actively sought jobs in the past four weeks to the sum of people employed and unemployed.

The sentiment jobless rate includes part-time workers who hope to get a regular job working more than 36 hours a week and those who want to work but reply during the job survey period that they conducted no job-searching activity in the past four weeks.

The number of those unemployed was 1,203,000 in February, up 2. 1 percent from a year earlier.

The higher jobless rate came as job creation slowed down in February when the number of those employed grew 376,000 from a year earlier to 25,195,000.

After peaking at 594,000 in August last year, the monthly employment fell to the 400,000 level from September to December, before staying below 400,000 in January and February.

The hiring rate edged up 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 58.8 percent in February. The rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working age population, or those aged 15 or more. It is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government has targeted the 70 percent hiring rate in the long term.

The employment was led by those in their 50s and 60s, whose job creation reached 193,000 and 183,000 each in February. Job growth among those in their 20s and 30s were 44,000 and 18,000 respectively, but the employment in their 40s reduced 48,000 last month.

By industry, those hired by manufacturers and builders expanded 3.7 percent and 4.1 percent each. Employers in the service industry also recruited more workers than a year earlier.

Among wage earners, regular workers increased 3.2 percent in February from a year earlier. Irregular workers rose 1.3 percent, with those who work on a daily basis growing 1.3 percent.

The economically inactive population, or those aged over 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, increased 0.5 percent from a year earlier to 16,429,000 in February.

Among them, those in housework reduced 1.4 percent, but those in old age increased 4.1 percent amid the rapid population aging.

The so-called "take-a-rest" group jumped 9 percent in February from a year ago. The group refers to those who replied that they took a rest during the job survey period. The group is important as it can include those who are unemployed and too discouraged to search for work for a long time.

Those who were too discouraged to continue their search for jobs amounted to 456,000 in February. Discouraged workers are those who want to work and are available to do so but failed to get a job due to tough labor market conditions. They are those who looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. Endi