The number of jobs in the South Korean manufacturing sector is expected to drop below 4 million this year, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.

According to Yonhap, the National Statistical Office (NSO) and the Bank of Korea (BOK) said that jobs in manufacturing sector decreased steadily to 4.07 million in 2008 from 4.11 million in 2007.

In December, the number of people working in the manufacturing industry fell 2.4 percent to 4.02 million, marking the sharpest drop since the 2.5 percent fall in November 2005.

The South Korean government attributed the drop in manufacturing jobs to the global economic crunch which is taking its toll on the nation's investment and consumption, Yonhap said.

The steady shifting of the country's manufacturing sector into capital-intensive, high-tech fields and a higher proportion of information technology (IT) companies are also contributing to the fall, Yonhap said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2009)