April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s jobless rate fell slightly in February due to a rise in employment in the construction and public service sectors, but the number of newly added jobs fell to the lowest level in eight years, government data showed on March 14.

The unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent last month, down 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.

From a month earlier, it remained unchanged.

The number of employed people reached 26.08 million in February, up 104,000 from a year earlier, sharply slowing down from the previous month’s rise of 334,000, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.

The addition of new jobs in February marks the lowest since January 2010, the data showed.

The unemployment rate for young people -- those aged between 15 and 29 -- was 9.8 percent, compared with 12.3 percent a year earlier.

The employment rate advanced 0.1 percentage point to 65.8 percent from a year earlier, with the corresponding figure for young people up 1 percentage point at 42.2 percent.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)