South Korea’s jobless rate slightly dropped in November from a month earlier as job creation picked up speed, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.7 percent last month, down from 2.8 percent in October.

The jobless rate adjusted for inflation also inched down to 2.9 percent from the previous month’s 3 percent.

Job creation accelerated sharply. The number of employed people was 25.53 million in November, up 588,000 from a year earlier.

The figure represented the largest on-month increase since September last year when 685,000 jobs were added to the economy, the report showed.

The job increase comes mostly from the health and social welfare service sector, which provided an additional 218,000 positions compared with the same month a year earlier. (Yonhap News)