S. Korea's Oct. job loss largest in 6 months amid pandemic

SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea reported the sharpest fall in jobs in six months in October, also extending its job losses to an eighth month amid the pandemic, data showed Wednesday.

The number of employed people reached 2.71 million last month, 421,000 fewer than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The tally marked the sharpest on-year decline since April, when the country shed 476,000 jobs due to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korea has reported job losses every month since March, when the nation lost about 195,000 jobs, the first on-year job loss since 2009, due to the fallout of the pandemic.

The country's jobless rate rose 0.7 percentage point on-year to 3.7 percent, the data showed.

Last month, the employment rate for those aged between 15 and 64 reached 65.9 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

The unemployment rate for young adults -- those aged between 15 and 29 -- came to 8.3 percent in October, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous year.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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