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S. Korea adds 339,000 jobs in January with jobless rate at 3.7 pct

Xinhua, February 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Korea's economy added 339,000 jobs in January, with a jobless rate posting 3.7 percent, a government report showed Wednesday.

The number of those employed totaled 25.445 million in January, up 339,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

The January growth was down from a 495,000 increase in December, which marked the largest monthly advance in 16 months. But the January figure was relative positive compared with a 285,000 growth in November last year.

Unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent in January, down 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. It posted the highest in six months, but it was a relative low level as the jobless rate tends to stay higher during a winter season.

Hiring rate, serving as an alternative to jobless rate, reached 58.8 percent in January, up 0.1 percentage point from a year ago. The employment rate for those aged 15-64 increased 0.4 percentage points to 65.2 percent.

The labor force participation rate was 61.1 percent in January, up 0.1 percentage point from the same month of last year.

Youth jobless rate, which gauges the unemployment rate among those aged 15-29, advanced 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier to reach 9.5 percent in January. It was the highest in seven months since June last year.

Unemployed youths in South Korea are estimated to have topped 1 million as companies refrain from hiring new recruits amid economic uncertainties. The introduction of legal retirement age at 60 led senior employees to keep their posts for an extended period of time.

The number of youths employed came in at 3.942 million in January, up 25,000 from a year earlier. The youth hiring rate gained 0.4 percentage points to 41.7 percent last month. Enditem