SEOUL, May 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's employment growth hit an 80-month high in April, indicating an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic shock, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of those employed totaled 27,214,000 in April, up 652,000 from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. It was the fastest increase in over six and a half years since August 2014.
The employment continued to slide from March last year to February this year on the back of the economic turmoil from the pandemic, before rebounding 314,000 in March.
The improvement of job data, or one of the lagging economic indicators, reflected a recent recovery of the economy.
The country's real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, expanded 1.6 percent in the January-March quarter from the previous quarter, recovering to a pre-pandemic level.
Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, surged 41.1 percent in April from a year earlier, logging the fastest increase in over 10 years and keeping an upward trend for six straight months.
The number of jobs in the manufacturing industry rose 9,000 in April on a yearly basis, marking the first turnaround in 14 months thanks to the export recovery.
Employment in the services sector jumped 507,000 in April, after growing 262,000 in the previous month. The labor market conditions among services companies gained ground amid the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in late February and the eased social-distancing guidelines.
Jobs in the lodging and eatery segment gained 61,000 in April, after falling 28,000 in March. It was the first rebound in 14 months since February last year.
The numbers in the healthcare and social welfare, the transport and warehousing, and the construction sectors rose 224,000, 107,000 and 141,000 respectively, but employment for the wholesale and retail, and the arts, sports and leisure services segments diminished 182,000 and 11,000 each.
The number of regular workers grew 311,000 in April from a year earlier, and those for irregular employees and day laborers went up 379,000 and 38,000 respectively.
Employment among those in their 20s, 50s and 60s or older moved up last month, but the figures for those in their 30s and 40s declined 98,000 and 12,000 each amid the aging population.
The hiring rate for those aged 15 or higher stood at 60.4 percent in April, up 1.0 percentage point from a year ago. The OECD-method employment rate for those aged 15-64 added 1.1 percentage points to 66.2 percent.
The employment rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working-age population, or those aged 15 or above. Given the aging population, it is used as an alternative to show the labor market conditions more precisely.
The number of those unemployed was 1,147,000 in April, down 25,000 from a year earlier. The jobless rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 4.0 percent last month.
The unemployment rate measures those who are immediately available for work but fail to get a job for the past four weeks despite efforts to actively seek a job.
The number of economically inactive population, who had no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, came to 16,667,000 in April, down 324,000 from a year earlier.
The number of a so-called "take-a-rest" group, who replied that they took a rest during a job survey period, shrank 38,000 over the year to 2,371,000 last month, but the reading for discouraged job seekers gained 25,000 to 635,000.
The "take-a-rest" group is considered important as it can include those who are unemployed or too discouraged to seek a job for an extended period of time.
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