South Korea's jobless rate rose in January from a month earlier, with youth unemployment and the number of "underemployed" further increasing, a government report said Wednesday.
According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3.8 percent last month, up from 3.4 percent in December and 0.3 percentage point higher than the year before. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate, on the other hand, inched down from 3.5 percent to 3.4 percent.
The number of employed people reached 25.1 million last month, with 347,000 new jobs being created compared with the year before, the report showed. The increase in jobs is the lowest tallied since May of 2013 when numbers rose 265,000. The new job numbers fell from the 422,000 increase reported for December, the first time growth fell to the 300,000 range in seven months.
The latest tally showed unemployment rate for young people, between the ages of 15 and 29, standing at 9.2 percent last month, up slightly from 9 percent tallied a month earlier. The January figure for the age group represents the highest monthly tally since corresponding data began to be compiled in 2000. Data for youth unemployment tends to go up when schools are closed for winter and summer break.
The so-called labor underutilization indicator hit 11.9 percent last month, up from 11.2 percent in December and 10.2 percent in November.
This indicator is based on guidelines made by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and reflects the number of people who are "underemployed" and those who currently hold part-time jobs but want full-time work.
South Korea is the only country that announces labor underutilization figures as outlined by the ILO.
It counts unemployed people who have given up looking for work not by choice but due to circumstances or because they lack qualifications. A rise in this number can be seen as an indication that employment conditions felt by ordinary people are worse than what official jobless figures show.
Under the conventional system of calculating employment, those that have not sought jobs for a set period are excluded from the statistics, because they are not considered potential job seekers.
The agency started to provide the indicator late last year to give a more accurate picture of the country's labor market situation.
By sector, cold weather caused the number of jobs in farming and fisheries to drop by 104,000, with financial and insurance related jobs contracting by 66,000. Public services and certain private service sector job numbers backtracked last month.
The latest report showed a rise in regular and temporary workers, while numbers for daily workers declined.
Despite the fall in job creation, the statistical office said last month marked the first time that national employment figures surpassed the 25 million mark for January, which is usually a slow month for jobs.
"Judging by numbers only, it may seem employment conditions have deteriorated, but if seasonal factors, including the date of the Lunar New Year, are considered, the job market as a whole is continuing to improve," said Sim Won-bo, head of the agency's employment statistics division.
He pointed out that because the Lunar New Year fell in late January last year, 705,000 jobs were created that month. It said that the holiday spiked demand for workers in farming and fisheries, retail, food and transportation services, which is not the case this year.
This year, the holiday falls in February.
"Taking into account that over 700,000 jobs were created in January 2014, last month's on-year increase of 340,000 is very healthy," the official claimed.
The finance ministry said while the number of new jobs fell from December, last month still represented the third month in a row that employment rose vis-a-vis the month before.
It said employment rate for people between the age of 15 through 64, the measure used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, edged up 0.5 percentage point to 64.8 percent on-year.
Lee Chan-woo, director general of the finance ministry's economic policy bureau, said that because of the effect caused by the Lunar New Year and the school break period, economic indicators for the first quarter is best assessed if they are seen together.
He stressed the fact that more jobs were created is a sign that the growth momentum is being maintained, notwithstanding the unfavorable base effect brought on by a surge in jobs the year before.
"The ministry is keeping track of key indicators in consumption, investment and employments, and numbers for this year are generally better than the fourth quarter of 2014," the official said. (Yonhap)
