Korea’s jobless rate was higher in January from a month earlier due mainly to seasonal factors, a government report showed Wednesday.

The jobless rate reached 3.7 percent last month, up from 3.2 percent in December. Compared to a year earlier, the January figure was 0.1 percentage point lower. However, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained unchanged from a month earlier at 3.5 percent.

In its report, Statistics Korea said cold weather prevented the agriculture and fishery sectors from hiring more in January, compared with the exceptionally warm weather in December.

The unemployment rate for those between 15 and 29 surged to a seven-month high of 9.5 percent in January, up from December’s 8.4 percent. It was also 0.3 percentage point higher from a year earlier.

The number of employed people reached 25.4 million last month, with 339,000 new jobs being created compared with the year before, the report showed. The job increase was the smallest in 11 months.

The country’s overall employment rate stood at 58.8 percent, up 0.1 percentage point over the cited period, with the number of economically active people rising 1.3 percent on-year to 26.4 million in January.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)