S. Korea adds fewest number of jobs in over 3 years in May: data

South Korea reported the slowest on-year job growth in more than three years in May, data showed Wednesday.

The number of employed people came to 28.6 million last month, up 80,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It marked the fewest job additions since February 2021, when the country shed 473,000 positions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, the country had 261,000 new jobs, after adding 173,000 new positions a month earlier. In January and February, the monthly job additions surpassed the 300,000 level.

The employment rate of people aged 15-64 increased 0.1 percentage point on-year to 70 percent in May, and the jobless rate rose 0.3 percentage point to 3 percent, the data showed.

Source: Yonhap News Agency