Roundup: S.Korea's youth jobless rate posts highest March figure of 11.8 pct

Unemployment rate among South Korean youths posted the highest March figure as college graduates rushed to seek a job and civil service exams were held, a government report showed Friday.

Youth jobless rate for those under 30 was 11.8 percent in March, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It almost tripled the overall unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in the month.

The youth unemployment rate in March improved compared with an all-time high of 12.5 percent tallied in February, but it was higher than any figures recorded in March in the past.

Relatively higher youth jobless rates in February and March came as college graduates rushed to find a job in those months and civil service exams were held.

An official unemployment rate gauges the percentage of those unemployed who actively sought jobs in the past four weeks to the sum of those employed and unemployed. The more youths enter the labor market, the higher the unemployment rate gets.

The employment rate among youths was 41.0 percent in March, up 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier. It indicated an increase in job creation among youths despite the higher unemployment rate caused by a rise in the number of those who entered the labor market.

The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working-age population, or those above 15. It is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government sets a target at 70 percent in the long term.

The so-called sentiment jobless rate, which the statistical agency began to unveil in November 2014, was 11.7 percent last month.

The sentiment rate, which measures the potentially unemployed, 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 that they conducted no job-searching efforts in the past four weeks.

Meanwhile, the South Korean economy added 300,000 jobs in March compared with a year earlier, after creating 223,000 jobs in February. The number of those employed totaled 25.8 million as of March.

The hiring rate inched up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 59.6 percent in March amid the faster growth in job employment. The OECD-method employment rate for those aged 15-64 was 65.1 percent in March, up 0.2 percentage points from a year ago.

Job creation was led by those in their 60s and 50s, the number of whose jobs created in March reached 185,000 and 60,000 respectively. Employment among those in their 20s and 40s increased 74,000 and 7,000 each, but 29,000 workers in their 30s lost their jobs.

Manufacturers employed 124,000 workers in March, keeping an employment of more than 100,000 workers for 23 straight months.

Among service companies, the social welfare and restaurant & lodging sectors raised the number of their workers, but the wholesale sector and the leisure, sports & arts industry reduced their employees.

Regular workers increased 4.1 percent, with irregular employees inching up 0.7 percent. But, the number of day laborers declined 7.1 percent on a yearly basis.

The economically inactive population, or those aged above 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, reduced 61,000 in March from a year earlier.

Among the inactive population, the number of people who responded during the job survey that they quitted their job due to old age increased 148,000 last month. Those who did not work for child care shrank 81,000. Enditem