The number of those employed was 27,012,000 in September, down 392,000 from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea. It was the fastest slide in four months since May.
The employment continued to skid for the seventh consecutive month, with declines of 195,000 in March, 476,000 in April, 392,000 in May, 352,000 in June, 277,000 in July and 274,000 in August respectively.
The COVID-19 resurged here in August and September owing to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area traceable to church services and a massive rally in central Seoul on Aug. 15.
People refrained from outside activities, including eating out and shopping, as the government tightened its three-tier social distancing guidelines to contain the virus spread before easing the guidelines to the lowest level earlier this month.
The number of those unemployed totaled 1 million in September, up 116,000 from a year earlier. It marked the fastest increase in five months.
Jobless rate came in at 3.6 percent in September, up 0.5 percentage points from a year ago.
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