Roundup: S. Korea adds lowest jobs in 26 months, jobless rate at 3.9 pct

South Korea saw new jobs added by the lowest in 26 months in April, with its jobless rate unchanged at 3. 9 percent from a year earlier, a government report said on Wednesday.

The number of those employed totaled 25.9 million in April, up 216,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest growth since February 2013 when the economy created 201, 000 new jobs.

The country's job creation has trended down after peaking at 835,000 in February 2014. In the past three months, the employment rose more than 300,000.

The employment rate was 60.3 percent in April, down 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier. The OECD-method hiring rate among those aged 15-64 rose 0.2 percentage points to 65.6 percent in April.

The employment 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 targets 70 percent in the long run.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9 percent in April compared with the same month of last year. The number of those unemployed was 1,053,000 in April, up 23,000 from a year ago.

The so-called "sentiment" jobless rate, which the statistical agency began to unveil from November 2014, was 11.3 percent in April.

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 youth jobless rate among those aged 15-29 rose 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 10.2 percent in April. It was lower than 10.7 percent in March, but higher than any April figure in the past 16 years.

The number of youths unemployed was 445,000 in April, up 19,000 from a year earlier.

The April employment was led by those in their 50s and 60s, the number of which employed increased 112,000 and 114,000 each last month, much higher than a 78,000 rise among those in their 20s.

The number of jobs in their 30s and 40s reduced 68,000 and 26, 000 respectively last month.

Among wage earners, regular workers increased 2.5 percent in April from a year earlier. Irregular workers fell 0.6 percent, but those who worked on a daily basis rose 5.1 percent.

The economically inactive population, or those aged over 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, grew 1.7 percent from a year earlier to 15,971,000 in April.

Among them, those in old age and infant care increased 5.6 percent and 5.1 percent each last month.

The so-called "take-a-rest" group surged 16.7 percent in April from a year earlier. 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 an extended period of time.

Those who were too discouraged to continue their search for jobs amounted to 395,000 in April. 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 job sometime in the prior 12 months. Endi