Roundup: S.Korea's job growth hits 5-month high

South Korea posted the largest monthly job creation in five months, showing signs of labor market recovery, a government report showed Wednesday.

The number of those employed increased 379,000 in May from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

After staying above the 300,000 level for the first three months of 2015, the monthly job creation slid below the level in April before recovering in May.

As more population participated in economic activity, both the employment and unemployed rates advanced last month.

The hiring rate for those aged 15 or more gained 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 60.9 percent in May. The OECD-method employment rate for those aged 15-64 rose 0.5 percentage points to 66.1 percent in May, the highest since the related data began to be compiled in 1982.

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 jobless rate climbed 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 3.8 percent in May. The so-called "sentiment" jobless rate, which the statistical agency began to unveil from November 2014, was 11 percent in May.

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 unemployment rate for those aged 15-29 declined 0.9 percentage points on-year to 9.3 percent in May, but the figure was higher than any May numbers since 1999.

The number of youths unemployed was 406,000 in May, up 40,000 from a year earlier. The youth hiring rate came to 41.7 percent in May, up 1.2 percentage points from a month ago.

The May employment was led by those in their 50s and 60s, the number of which employed gained 147,000 and 167,000 respectively, much higher than a 99,000 increase among those in their 20s.

The number of jobs in their 30s and 40s reduced 44,000 and 7, 000 each last month.

Among wage earners, regular workers increased 2.9 percent in May from a year earlier. Irregular workers fell 0.5 percent, but those who worked on a daily basis expanded 8.7 percent.

The economically inactive population, or those aged over 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, grew 0.5 percent, or 73,000, from a year earlier to 15,764,000 in May.

Among them, those in schools and housework reduced 230,000 and 49,000 each in May from a year earlier, but those in childcare increased 43,000 last month.

The so-called "take-a-rest" group increased 138,000 on-year in May. 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 414,000 in May, up from 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