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The number of jobs nationwide decreased by 190,000 last month from a year earlier. According to figures released by the National Statistical Office on Wednesday, 23.11million people had jobs in March, down 195,000 on-year and the biggest decline since March 1999, when 390,000 jobs disappeared right after the Asian financial crisis.
Employment fell faster every month. Some 12,000 people lost their jobs in December last year, 103,000 in January this year, and 142,000 in February.
Some 952,000 were jobless in March, approaching the 1 million mark and up a whopping 230,000 since September. The unemployment rate was 4 percent, the highest since February 2006 (4.1 percent).
Companies are reluctant to hire entry-level staff, sending youth unemployment among aged 15 to 29 to 8.8 percent, more than twice the overall rate. As growing numbers gave up finding jobs in the recession, the economically inactive population rose by 525,000 in just a year, the largest growth since the NSO began compiling the statistics in June 1999.
Adding the number of people who have given up their search for work and jobseekers to the official figure, actual unemployment was 3.91 million and the actual unemployment rate 14.3 percent, 3.5 times the official rate.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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