South Korea created new jobs in March for first time since pandemic

Seoul, Apr 14 (EFE).- South Korea generated new jobs in year-on-year terms in March for the first time since the pandemic began, with the addition of some 314,000 new jobs, the country’s Statistical Office said Wednesday.

Although the unemployment rate rose to one tenth to 4.3 percent compared to the same month last year, the number of people with employment in March in South Korea rose by 314,000 to 26.9 million.

It is the first time that Asia’s fourth economy has created new jobs in 13 months, since February 2020.

Some 218,000 jobs were lost last year, a record since the country was hit by the 1998 economic crisis.

Increased economic activity following the relaxation of social distancing measures in February has helped create more jobs, according to the Statistics Bureau.

However, the service sector continued to be the hardest hit by the pandemic, underscoring the unevenness of this very slight recovery.

The hospitality industry lost 28,000 jobs compared to March 2020 and wholesalers and retailers reduced the number of jobs by 168,000.

In turn, the manufacturing sector slowed the year-on-year loss of jobs (only 11,000 in March) and it was the social work sector (171,000 more jobs) and the public sector (94,000 new jobs) that actually contributed to improving global computation. EFE

asb/lds