South Korea’s hiring bounced back in September as employers added 314,000 jobs on year, but real youth unemployment rate hit the highest suggesting the country’s lackluster job market, government data showed.

According to September employment data released by the Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of employed stood at 26,844,000, up 314,000 from the same month last year. The year-on-year addition breached 300,000 a month after it sunk below the mark for the first time in six months in August due to heavy rain during the survey period.

The on-year job growth, however, remained lackluster considering the Chuseok holiday period generally leads to a sharp growth in employment a month before it begins. This year, unprecedentedly long Chuseok holidays fell in October.

By sector, construction, public services, retail and wholesale sectors added jobs last month while finance, education, and technical service industries recorded a dip.

Factory payroll in September gained 24,000 from a year earlier, extending gains for the fourth straight month. But the year-on addition is smaller than that of previous month with 25,000.

The number of self-employed that made the first fall in nearly a year last month rebounded after adding 45,000.

The employment rate in September reached 61.3 percent, inching up by 0.3 percentage point from a year ago.

The employment rate of people aged between 15 and 64, the standard of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), rose 0.5 percentage point on year to 66.9 percent.

The number of jobless people fell by 51,000 to hit 935,000 in September as the unemployment tally for those between 25 and 29, and in 50s increased while the figures for those between 20 and 24, in 30s and 40s declined on year.

The overall jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage point on year to 3.4 percent.

Youth jobless rate also edged down 0.2 percentage point on year to 9.2 percent. But the real youth unemployment rate that reflects the actual number of unemployed including part-time workers and people in between jobs seeking full-time employment ticked up 0.2 percentage point on year to 21.5 percent, the highest since the statistics bureau began compiling the related data in September 2015.

By Lee Seung-yoon and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]