3개월 연속 취업자 증가 10만명대...금융위기 이후 최악<br /><br /> New employment figures once again reflect the hard time faced by those looking for work here in the nation.<br />The data shows only about 1-hundred-20-thousand new jobs were added last month.<br />Kim Hyesung looks beyond the discouraging digits. <br />The number of newly-added jobs in South Korea was just above the 100-thousand mark in April.<br /> Statistics Korea said Wednesday that 26-point-eight million people were employed in Korea last month,... up a mere 123-thousand from the same period last year. <br /> In January, job growth was within the 300-thousand range.<br />But it has slumped into the 100-thousand range over the last three months,… marking the worst performance since the 2008 global financial crisis. <br />It's also just a third the level of average jobs growth added last year, which was at around 300-thousand.<br /> New jobs were created in the healthcare and public sector, but the education, services, retail and wholesale sectors saw new job openings drop sharply. <br />Statistics Korea added that the shrinking working age population, people between the ages of 15 and 64, was another reason for the slower pace of newly-added jobs.<br /><br /> "Services industry jobs declined due to the minimum wage hike. The manufacturing sector saw the number of jobs drop amid the ongoing restructuring of the shipbuilding industry. In the mid-to-long run, enhancing Korea's competitiveness in manufacturing will be key to boosting job growth."<br /><br /> The overall unemployment rate came in at four-point-one percent last month,... down one-tenth of a percentage point on-year.<br /> Youth unemployment also fell by zero-point-five percentage point, but was still stubbornly high at ten-point-seven percent.<br />Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.<br />
