South Korea’s factory jobs fell to four-year lows in the first half amid waning competitiveness in major car and ship manufacturing sector and due to higher labor cost from hike in minimum wage and cutback in workweek hours.

According to data released by the Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of employed in the manufacturing sector shrank to 4,521,000, the lowest for the first six-month period in four years. The figure rose to 4,625,000 during the first half of 2016 but shriveled to 4,553,000 a year after.

In June this year alone, the manufacturing sector shed 126,000 jobs to mark the third straight month to lose jobs and the largest loss since January last year.

The real unemployment rate, a broad measurement of people without jobs including discouraged workers, those between jobs. and part timers, hit 11.8 percent in the first half of this year. The broad jobless rate is the highest record for the first six-month period since 2015 when the statistics bureau started compiling such data.

The downfall mainly came from automobile and shipbuilding sectors amid ongoing streamlining due to sluggish demand, said the statistics office. The automobile output in June shrank 7.3 percent. Amid thinning backlog and dearth of new orders, the shipbuilding sector has been sending employees on rotational leave and cutting back on payroll.

Textile and food factories that mostly pay by hourly minimum wage also shed workforce amid higher labor cost from hike in minimum wage and shorter work hours.

By Lee Yu-sup and Cho Jeehyun

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