Roundup: S.Korea's youth jobless rate falls to lowest in over 2 years

Jobless rate among South Korean youths fell in October to the lowest in more than two years, indicating a recovery in labor market conditions for college graduates, whose unemployment was estimated to top 1 million, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the unemployment rate among youths aged 15-29 shed 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 7.4 percent in October, marking the lowest since May 2013.

The number of youths employed reached 3,951,000 in October, up 101,000 from the same month of last year. The youth hiring rate rose 1.1 percentage points to 41.7 percent last month.

The lower jobless rate among youths eased concerns that the actual number of youth unemployment, including those not seeking to find a job in the past four weeks or too discouraged to give up job-searching efforts, might have exceeded 1 million.

Many graduate students here were forced to work for part-time jobs while studying in preparation for better job-seeking, and some of them were paid little just for the purpose of gaining job experience for future careers.

Overall labor market conditions improved. The number of those employed came in at 26,298,000 in October, up 348,000 from the same month of last year. It marked the highest monthly increase in five months since May when 379,000 jobs were added to the job market.

The job growth was led by those in their 50s, whose jobs increased 125,000. Jobs among those in their 60s and 40s expanded 136,000 and 33,000 each, but the figure among those in their 30s reduced 47,000.

Job creation among manufacturers gained 4.4 percent, or 191,000, in October from a year earlier. Employment in the service industry jumped 292,000 last month, but those in the construction sector reduced 27,000.

The economically active population, or people employed and unemployed, increased 504,000 in October from a year earlier. The hiring rate was unchanged at 60.9 percent.

The OECD-method employment rate among those aged 15-64 rose 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier to 66.2 percent in October. The figure for youths aged 15-29 gained 1.1 percentage points to 41.7 percent.

The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working age population, or those aged 15 or above. It is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government targeted 70 percent over the long run.

Jobless rate dipped 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 3.1 percent in October, the lowest since November 2013.

The so-called "sentiment" jobless rate, which the statistical agency began to unveil from November 2014 to reflect jobless conditions more accurately, was 10.5 percent in October.

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 economically inactive population, or those aged over 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, rose 176,000, or 1.1 percent, from a year earlier to 16,012,000 in October.

Among them, those studying in preparation for future jobs after college graduation grew 82,000, or 14.7 percent, from a year earlier to 637,000 in October. Those who were too discouraged to continue their search for jobs came to 471,000 in October, marking the lowest since June.

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. Enditem