Finally a glint of light for jobseekers here in South Korea,... as the country's jobless rate edged down last month... and the employment rate hit 60 percent,...which is a record for the month of March.
And to continue this positive momentum,... the government is also planning to create some 1-hundred-58-thousand new jobs in various sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and innovative industries by the year 2022.
Kim Da-mi starts us off.
The upswing in South Korea's job market continued in March... as 250-thousand more people were newly-employed compared to the previous year, surpassing the 200-thousand mark for the second straight month.
The jobless rate also edged down zero-point-two percent on-year to four-point-three percent.
This means almost 27-million people were working in South Korea as of last month.
The uptick in the employment rate was also seen across all age groups, except for those in their 40s.
Statistics Korea, which collated the data, credited the overall increase to a higher number of people employed in their 60s,... as well as to more jobs created in the country's health and social services sectors.
However, the number of jobs in the manufacturing sector, for which South Korea is heavily reliant, decreased by almost 110,000,... the twelfth consecutive month of losses.
Experts pointed to sluggish growth in the manufacturing and retail sectors as the main reason.
Analysts added improvements in the markets may positively affect job growth within the country's leading industries.
Kim Da-mi, Arirang News.