South Korea lost 274,000 jobs last month, continuing the downward trend for a sixth consecutive month -- the longest period since the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis -- data showed Wednesday.

Hit by coronavirus woes, Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s jobless rate inched up 0.1 percentage point on-year to 3.1 percent in August and the number of unemployed surged to 27.08 million, data compiled by Statistics Korea showed.

It is the most protracted downturn in employment since the January-August period of 2009, when the country was reeling from the blows it suffered from the financial crisis.

The government said the “longer-than-expected duration of the pandemic” and damage from what President Moon called the “unprecedentedly lengthy monsoon and downpours” in August were reflected in the data.

The employment rate for those aged 15 or older declined 1 percentage point on-year to 60.4 percent, marking the lowest rate since August 2013 when the figure stood at 60.2 percent. The employment rate for those aged between 15 and 64 -- the working-age population, as defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- fell 1.1 percentage point on-year to 65.9 percent.

The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point on-year to 3.1 percent, translating into 6,000 more unemployed compared with the same period last year. The number of unemployed stood at 864,000 here as of last month.

The accommodation and food and beverage services sectors, also called the hospitality industry, were hit hard by virus risks, shedding 169,000 jobs last month.

The economically active population shed 267,000 on-year to 27.94 million, while the economically inactive population expanded by 534,000 to 16.86 million in the same period, the data showed.

While the government has made efforts to paint a rosy picture of the nation’s labor market, officials said Wednesday that the worst is yet to come. The risks stemming from the resurgence of the virus and stricter social distancing rules imposed in mid-August here will be reflected in the September data, they said.

Since Aug. 14, the country’s daily count of new virus cases has been in the triple digits -- pushed up by infections linked to a church in northern Seoul and a rally in mid-August.

This led to Korea adopting Level 2 social distancing guidelines nationwide, a medium level of vigilance in a three-tier system. Indoor meetings of more than 50 people and open-air gatherings of over 100 people are banned.

“The September data is expected to heavily reflect the effects of the stricter social distancing rules imposed nationwide,” Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said via Facebook.

“We will implement financial support for the labor market and projects to fill in jobs, smoothly and without delay,” he added.

Bolstering the nation’s labor market has been a key goal of the Moon administration, which has introduced three extra budgets worth some 60 trillion won ($49.7 billion) so far this year to combat economic woes from the pandemic. The National Assembly approved all three.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)