SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Employment in South Korea slowed last month on the still lackluster labor market, with jobless rate among youths staying at a high level, a government report showed Wednesday.
The number of those employed totaled 26,855,000 in October, up 279,000, or 1 percent, from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea.
The employment growth fell below the 300,000 level, after rebounding to 314,000 in September. It hinted that the country's labor market conditions were still in the doldrums.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May, put his top priority on creating decent jobs as many of youths failed to get a job several years after graduation. More than 1 million college graduates reportedly are in a state of unemployment.
The Moon government allocated 11.2 trillion won (about 10 billion U.S. dollars) to the second-half supplementary budget, which was passed through the parliament in late July, but the extra budget had yet to take effect.
Under the five-year job creation plan, the government aimed to create over 800,000 jobs in the public sector, while providing assistance to help the private sector hire more workers.
The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 3.2 percent in October, but the jobless rate among youths aged 15-29 rose 0.1 percentage point to 8.6 percent.
The number of those unemployed stood at 896,000 in October, down 27,000 from a year earlier.
