S. Korea to focus on supporting job recovery: senior official

SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will step up efforts to prop up the sluggish job market as the pace of job recovery remains weak amid the fallout of the pandemic, a senior government official said Friday.

The country reported the first job addition in 13 months in March, but it has a long way to go for the full-blown recovery of the job market, according to First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon.

"Improvements in the job market are necessary for the balanced recovery of exports and domestic demand," Lee said at a meeting on policy directions.

Asia's fourth-largest economy is on a recovery track on the back of robust exports of chips and autos. But the job market and domestic demand remain sluggish amid a flare-up in COVID-19 cases.

The number of employed people reached 26.9 million in March, 314,000 more than a year earlier, according to the statistics agency. It marked the first time that the county added jobs since February 2020.

The country's exports grew 41.4 percent on-year in April, the sharpest on-year gain, to extend their increases to the sixth straight month.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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