South Korea added jobs for the 21st straight month in November, but the growth continued to slow for the sixth month in a row amid concerns over an economic recession, government data showed Wednesday,

The number of employed people stood at 28.4 million last month, up some 626,000 from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the highest growth for any November since the agency adopted the current research methods in 1999.

The November figure, however, marked a slight drop from an on-year rise of 677,000 tallied the previous month.

Monthly job creation has been losing steam since peaking at 935,000 in May.

South Korea's jobless rate fell 0.3 percentage point on-year to 2.3 percent in November, the lowest since 1999, the data showed,

The growth was primarily led by those aged 60 and older, which accounted for 479,000, or 76.5 percent of the on-year gain. People in their 50s and 30s took up 92,000 and 66,000 of the new jobs, respectively, the data showed.

The number of new jobs taken by those in their 20s and 40s, however, slipped 4,000 and 6,000, respectively, over the period.

The unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 29 moved up 0.2 percentage point on-year to 5.7 percent.

"While the number of employed people continued to rise, the growth has slowed, and both the number of unemployed and economically inactive population has decreased," Kong Mi-suk, a senior Statistics Korea official, told reporters.

Last month, new jobs were mainly created in the accommodation, restaurant, health care and manufacturing industries, the data showed.

In contrast, those in the retail, insurance and transportation sectors lost ground.

The South Korean economy, meanwhile, faces concerns over a recession amid persistent inflation and weak exports.

Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 5 percent last month from a year earlier in November, compared with a 5.7 percent increase in October, separate data showed earlier.

South Korea is widely expected to post an annual trade deficit this year for the first time since 2008 as well.

This year's exports have reached $644.3 billion as of Saturday, up 6.8 percent on-year. Imports, meanwhile, increased at a wider margin of 20.1 percent to hit $691 billion on high energy costs, resulting in a deficit of $47.4 billion. (Yonhap)