South Korea’s youth jobless rate hit a record high, exceeding 12 percent in February amid a lingering slump in the local economy, according to government data.
Statistics Korea said on Wednesday the number of unemployed people aged between 15 and 29 in February reached 560,000, up 76,000 from the same month of last year. The youth unemployment rate came to 12.5 percent, the all-time high since the definition of the unemployed was changed from those with a job hunting period of one week to those with four weeks in June 1999.
The country’s youth jobless rate has been on the upward trend since October last year when the rate hit 7.4 percent. It rose to 8.1 percent in November, 8.4 percent in December and 9.5 percent in January this year.
The youth unemployment is usually far higher in February than that in other months because the month overlaps with the local college graduation season. The youth jobless rate in February last year reached 11.1 percent and 10.9 percent two years ago.
The number of people with jobs came to 25,418,000 in February, up 223,000 year-on-year. It rose at the slowest pace since April last year, according to the data.
Since the number of people with jobs increased by 495,000 in December last year, the fastest rate in 16 months, the growth slowed to 339,000 in January this year and about 200,000 in February. The country’s overall employment rate stood at 58.7 percent, down 0.1 percentage point on-year.
By Cho Si-young
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]