South Korea's jobless rate inched down in September from a month earlier and job creation also quickened, raising hopes that the labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.
According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.9 percent last month, down from 3 percent tallied in the previous month.
The number of jobs added to payrolls also accelerated markedly.
About 685,000 jobs were added last month compared with a year earlier, the fastest growth since March 2002. It is also up from 364,000 jobs registered in August.
"The number of people employed in the manufacturing and service sectors increased, and the base effect also played a role as the Chuseok thanksgiving holiday last year coincided with the job survey week so the overall job numbers fell significantly," the agency explained.
The manufacturing sector added 139,000 jobs to its workforce, while the lodging industry and restaurants employed 110,000 more jobs compared with a year earlier, the report showed.
The health and social welfare service sector added 92,000 jobs and the education service sector also hired 71,000 more workers.
But the finance and insurance sector lost 25,000 jobs over the same period, according to the report.
Labor market conditions for young people remained bleak. Of those aged 15-29, 6.7 percent were jobless last month, up from 6.4 percent in August.
The latest employment data comes as South Korea's economy faces high uncertainty because of worries the protracted eurozone debt problems and global slowdown could dampen growth by undercutting exports.
Major indicators for the economy such as production, consumption and investment are showing signs of losing steam in recent months.
Industrial output, in particular, declined 0.7 percent in August from the previous month, affected by labor strikes in the auto industry, and retail sales contracted 3 percent over the same period.
Exports, a key growth engine for South Korea, were also affected by the slowing global economy. The country's overseas sales dropped 1.8 percent on-year in September.
Many think tanks at home and abroad are revising down their growth outlooks for Korea. The International Monetary Fund revised down its growth outlook for South Korea to 2.7 percent from the 3 percent it predicted just weeks earlier.
The government still sticks to its previous forecasts the economy will grow 3.3 percent this year and 4 percent next year.
Analysts, however, say those forecasts are overly optimistic given current economic situations, and predict this year's economic growth could fall into the 2 percent range.
Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said that the labor market conditions were relatively robust last month even after taking the base effect factor out but he worried that the outlooks for job creation will get cloudy going forward.
"Employment among those in 20s still remains weak and job creation is expected to slow after October due to the employment figures' tendency to follow the economic conditions," he said. "We need to continue our efforts to boost domestic demand and generate more jobs. (Yonhap News)
