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Roundup: Jobless rate in S. Korean regions rises fast on shipbuilding restructuring

Xinhua, August 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Jobless rate in South Korea's southeastern region, where major shipyards and ports are housed, rose fast due to the ongoing restructuring process among troubled shipbuilders and shipping lines, a government report showed on Wednesday.

The restructuring led employment among manufacturers to fall for the first time in more than four years, pulling down the overall job creation.

The number of those employed reached 26,603,000 in July, up 298,000 from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. It was a decline from 354,000 jobs created in June.

Employment among manufacturers slumped 65,000 last month, posting a fall for the first time in 49 months. It followed the ongoing restructuring process in shipbuilding and shipping lines amid faltering exports.

Jobless rate declined 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 3.5 percent in July. The number of those unemployed reduced 24,000 in July from a year earlier despite an increase among those in their 20s to 30s.

By region, the unemployment rate in the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan stood at 3.9 percent in July, higher than any July figures since 2009. It was up 1.2 percentage points from the same month of last year.

The jobless rate in South Gyeongsang province rose 1 percentage point to 3.6 percent in July, the highest since 1999.

The region's jobless rate is expected to keep rising for the rest of this year as three major shipbuilders promised to cut workforce by 30 percent by the end of 2018 as part of the restructuring process.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among youths fell 0.2 percentage points over the year to 9.2 percent in July, staying high compared with the official jobless rate.

The so-called sentiment jobless rate, which reflects those potentially unemployed, reached 10.7 percent last month.

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 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 that they conducted no job-searching efforts in the past four weeks.

The employment rate inched up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 61.2 percent in July. The rate among those aged 15-29 gained 1.2 percentage points to 43.6 percent as job creation in their 20s increased 90,000.

The OECD-method hiring rate among those aged 15-64 rose 0.4 percentage points over the year to 66.7 percent in July, keeping an upward trend for 38 months in a row.

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 set a long-term target at 70 percent.

Those who prepare for getting a job declined 3.3 percent to 618,000 last month as youths landed a job successfully. The number of youths employed reached 4,114,000 in July, up 88,000 from a year ago. Endit