President Moon Jae-in called Tuesday for all-out efforts to tackle South Korea's jobs crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would like the government to take this employment situation seriously and urgently seek extraordinary measures," he said at the outset of a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Moon raised the need for a "pan-governmental all-out response system" in order to turn the job situation around within this month.

He described the January situation as "employment shock," citing relevant data. South Korea lost nearly 1 million jobs in the month, with the number of unemployed topping 1.5 million, according to Statistics Korea.

"What hurts more is the deepened polarization by industry and bracket," the president stressed.

The country has relatively fared well in exports but domestic consumption, another pillar of Asia's fourth-largest economy, has been hit hard by the virus and strict social distancing regulations.

Moon reaffirmed a plan to expand job opportunities, with the public sector playing the role of "pump priming."

He said the government will certainly create 900,000 jobs by the end of the first quarter in cooperation with local authorities and public institutions.

"Second, (the government) will provide full support for the private sector to maintain jobs," while broadening the employment safety net and upgrading vocational training, he added. (Yonhap)