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Job growth in South Korea fell to the lowest in 22 months on the back of the highest jobless rate among youths, a government report said on Wednesday.
The number of those employed was 25,501,000 in March, up 338, 000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest monthly growth since May 2013.
The labor force participation rate gained 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 62 percent in March, leading to a rise in both employment and jobless rates.
The employment rate was 59.5 percent in March, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. The OECD-method hiring rate for those aged 15-64 rose 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 64.9 percent in March.
The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working age population, or those aged 15 or more. It is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government has targeted the 70 percentage hiring rate in the long term.
Jobless rate rose 0.1 percentage point on-year to 4 percent in March. The number of those unemployed increased 5.1 percent from a year earlier to 1,076,000 in March.
The so-called "sentiment" jobless rate, which the statistics agency began to unveil from November 2014, was 11.8 percent in March.
The official unemployment rate gauges the percentage of those unemployed who actively sought jobs in the past four weeks to the sum of people 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 period that they conducted no job-searching activity in the past four weeks.
The unemployment rate among those aged 15-29 was 10.7 percent in March, higher than any figure posted in the month since the new method of jobless assessment was introduced in 2000.
The number of youths unemployed was 455,000 in March.
The March employment was led by those in their 50s and 60s, the number of which employed expanded 210,000 and 158,000 each last month, much higher than a 45,000 rise among those in their 20s.
The number of jobs in their 30s and 40s reduced 3,000 and 67, 000 each last month.
Among wage earners, regular workers increased 2.7 percent in March from a year earlier, with irregular workers and those who worked on a daily basis rising 0.9 percent and 2 percent respectively.
The economically inactive population, or those aged over 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, grew 0.7 percent from a year earlier to 16,298,000 in March.
Among them, those in old age and infant care increased 3.3 percent and 1.9 percent each last month, but those in housework reduced 0.9 percent.
The so-called "take-a-rest" group jumped 12.8 percent in March from a year ago. The group refers to those who replied that they took a rest during the job survey period. The group is important as it can include those who are unemployed and too discouraged to search for work for an extended period of time.
Those who were too discouraged to continue their search for jobs amounted to 428,000 in March. 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.
