South Korea's on-year employment grew at a slower pace in 2023 as the number of newly employed fell in the manufacturing sector and among young people, data showed Wednesday.

The number of employed people rose 327,000 in 2023 from a year earlier, or 1.2 percent, to come to 28.41 million, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It marked the third consecutive year that the country added jobs on-year, following job losses in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the job growth slowed from 2022, when the country had 816,000 more jobs, the largest number since 2000.

But the employment rate of people aged 15-64 rose 0.7 percentage point on-year to 69.2 percent in 2023, the highest figure since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 1989.

The employment rate of people aged 15 and older also reached the highest level of 62.6 percent last year since 1963.

The country's jobless rate inched down 0.2 percentage point to 2.7 percent in 2023.

The number of unemployed people fell by 46,000 from a year earlier to come to 787,000 last month, according to the agency.

The number of economically inactive people lost 134,000 to 16.2 million in 2023.

"Rising demand for social welfare services and the recovery of pre-pandemic normalcy had led to the job growth for three years in a row, though the manufacturing and construction sectors, among other fields, shed jobs," an agency official said.

By sector, the manufacturing sector shed 43,000 jobs in 2023, the most since 2020, when the field lost 53,000 jobs.

The decline was due mainly to an economic slowdown and dwindling exports, as well as a high base effect, the agency said. The sector added 135,000 positions in 2022.

The wholesale and retail sector also lost 37,000 jobs last year, extending the losing streak for the sixth year.

The real estate and construction fields had 18,000 and 9,000 fewer jobs, respectively, last year.

But the medical and social welfare service segment had 143,000 new jobs, and the accommodation and restaurant field saw 114,000 new jobs.

By age, jobs for those aged 60 and older rose by 366,000 on-year, the largest increase among all age brackets.

Those in their 50s and 30s also had 59,000 and 54,000 more jobs, respectively, last year.

But the number of jobs for those aged 15-29 dropped by 98,000 amid the dwindling population of the age group, and people in their 40s also saw 54,000 fewer positions for them in 2023.

In December alone, the country added 285,000 jobs on-year, picking up the pace from the previous month's 277,000 job additions.

Hiring has logged on-year monthly growth since March 2021, the data showed.

The manufacturing sector had 10,000 more workers last month, marking the first on-year growth since December 2022 as the economy has shown signs of a turnaround.

The jobless rate, however, went up by 0.3 percentage point to 3.3 percent, and it was the first time that the rate marked an on-year rise since March 2021. (Yonhap)