S.Korea's employment falls for 3 months to May

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-11

South Korea's employment fell for three straight months through May, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of those employed 26,930,000 in May, down 392,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. The employment declined 195,000 in March and 476,000 in April each.

It marked the first time since December 2009 that the employment continued to slide for three straight months.

The number of those unemployed was 1,278,000 in May, up 133,000 from a year earlier. Unemployment rate gained 0.5 percentage points to 4.5 percent last month.

Both the number and the rate marked the highest May figure since relevant data began to be compiled in 1999.