South Korea's jobless rate fell in April from a month earlier and job creation also picked up speed, raising expectations that labor market conditions might be improving, a government report showed Wednesday.
According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3.2 percent last month, down from the previous month's 3.5 percent. The jobless rate adjusted for inflation also declined to 3.1 percent from March's 3.2 percent.
Job creation quickened, with the number of employed people standing at 25.1 million in April, up 345,000 from a year earlier.
The increase is larger than the 249,000 jobs tallied in March, the report showed.
The manufacturing sector added 165,000 jobs last month, leading the overall job creation. The health and social welfare service sector added 114,000 jobs, while the transportation sector generated 45,000 positions.
The wholesale and retail sector, however, shed 105,000 jobs and the education service and leisure sectors also lost 45,000 and 36,000 jobs, respectively, the data showed.
The latest job data comes amid concerns that the country's economy might be falling into a prolonged low-growth phase as uncertainty persists at home and abroad.
South Korea's gross domestic product grew less than 1 percent on-quarter for the eighth straight quarter. The economy grew 2 percent in 2012, the slowest gain in three years.
Recently, the National Assembly approved a 17.3 trillion won extra budget weeks after the government drafted the proposal to jump-start the slowing economy.
The extra budget plan will likely focus on creating more jobs, a move in line with major policy objectives being pushed by the Park Geun-hye government, which was inaugurated in late February.
The data showed that the number of the country's overall employment rate stood at 59.8 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. The number of unemployed people also fell by about 70,000 to 825,000 last month.
Younger people, however, continued to have a tough time landing jobs.
The unemployment rate for those aged 15-29 was 8.4 percent in April, though it edged down from March's 8.6 percent. The number of jobless people in the age group came to 340,000 last month.
The finance ministry said the latest job numbers indicate that the labor market situations are improving from a slump that has persisted since the final quarter of last year.
The ministry, however, noted that it "remains to be seen" whether the improving trend will continue going forward, citing bleak employment conditions among younger people and self-employed citizens. (Yonhap News)
