Unemployment rate fell to 2.6% in November in South Korea

The jobless rate was 2.6% in November, down 0.8 percentage point year-on-year. The rate was 3.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis.
By: | December 24, 2021

This was revealed by Statistics Korea, which also showed that the number of temporary workers in the country increased by 2.2% year-on-year to nearly 4.84 million in November. In comparison, the number of temporary workers had risen by 4.7% year-on-year in October. The data is not seasonally adjusted.

Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people totaled 734,000 in November, a fall of 233,000 persons or 24.1% year-on-year. At the same time, the number of employed people was 27.79 million in November, up 553,000 persons or 2.0% year-on-year.

The employment to population ratio recorded 61.5% in November, up 0.8 percentage point year-on-year.

By sector, the electricity, transport, communication & finance sectors saw the highest increase in employment, up 8.5% year-on-year, while the wholesale & retail trade, accommodation & food sectors reported a decline of 3.7% over the year.

READ: Majority of South Korean businesses opt for WFH even after pandemic

South Korea’s economically active population stood at 28.52 million persons in November, up 1.1% or 320,000 persons or year-on-year. The labour force participation rate was 63.1% in November, up 0.3% percentage point year-on-year.