The number of those employed was 27,085,000 in August, down 274,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
It continued to contract for the sixth consecutive month with declines of 195,000 in March, 476,000 in April, 392,000 in May, 352,000 in June and 277,000 in July respectively.
The falling pace slowed after peaking in April, but employment may reduce faster in September amid the COVID-19 resurgence here.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases grew in triple digits since Aug. 14 due to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area linked to church services and a massive rally in central Seoul on Aug. 15.
The COVID-19 resurgence was not reflected in the August employment data as the job survey was conducted from Aug. 9 to Aug. 15.
The number of those unemployed totaled 864,000 in August, up 6,000 from the same month of last year.
Unemployment rate added 0.1 percentage point over the year to 3.1 percent in August.
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