S. Korea's Oct. jobless rate inches up, job creation picks up

South Korea's jobless rate inched up in October from a month earlier but job creation accelerated, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in September.

The jobless rate adjusted for inflation remained unchanged at 3 percent over the cited period.

Job creation is picking up speed. The number of employed people was 25.54 million in October, up 476,000 from a year earlier. This is up from the previous month's gain of 463,000, according to the report.

The on-year job growth also represented the largest jump since September last year when 685,000 jobs were added to the economy, the report showed.

"Regular workers continue to increase, while part-time and daily contracted workers are also declining at a slower pace. This helped push the number of jobs created to over 400,000 for the third straight month in October," the agency said.

The health and social welfare service sector added 194,000 jobs in October compared with a year earlier, leading the overall job creation.

The lodging and dining sector also added 71,000 positions, and the manufacturing sector gained 31,000 more jobs last month than a year earlier, the report showed.

Labor market conditions for younger people, however, remained bleak.

The report showed that the jobless rate for those aged 15-29 inched up to 7.8 percent in October from 7.7 percent in September.

It is the highest level since July when it rose to 8.3 percent, according to the report.

The job data came as the country's economy is showing some signs of rebounding from its prolonged slumping growth trend.

South Korea's gross domestic product increased 1.1 percent in the July-September period from three months earlier, after expanding at an identical pace of 1.1 percent in the second quarter. The economy grew less than 1 percent on-quarter for the previous eight straight quarters.

In a meeting with other policymakers on Wednesday, Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok still expressed caution, saying that the economy is at a crossroads.

"Now we are faced with an important watershed moment of whether our economy turns around to a normal path or slips back to the low growth trend following just a short period of recovery," he said.

Hyun said that the private sector recovery and the government's "timely" and "swift" policy responses are critical in propping up the overall growth momentum. (Yonhap News)