Korea saw 277,000 jobs created in December, a drop in employment growth from 353,000 jobs a month earlier.

According to Statistics Korea, the December figure marked the slowest job gains on a monthly basis since September 2011 when job creation stood at 264,000.

In addition, the total number of employed continued to drop over the past few months ― it marked 25.06 million in October, 24.94 million in November and 24.40 million in December.

“The overall job growth pace slowed down last month as jobs available in sectors like the construction, publication, visuals, broadcasting and communications service sectors fell,” said the statistics agency.

Labor market conditions for young people remained tough. The unemployment rate for those aged 15-29 jumped to 7.5 percent from the previous month’s 6.7 percent. This was the highest level since June 2012 when the rate hit 7.7 percent.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)