South Korea Dec 2022 unemployment rate rises to 11-month high

SEOUL  – South Korea’s unemployment rate rose to an 11-month high in December 2022, while the annual increase in employed people marked the smallest in 21 months, official data showed on Wednesday.

The country’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for December stood at 3.3 percent, higher than 2.9 percent in November and the highest since January, according to Statistics Korea.

In the 12 months through December, the number of employed people increased by 509,000, extending a run of year-on-year gains to a 22nd straight month but marking the smallest annual increase since March 2021.

For the year 2022, South Korea’s annual unemployment rate stood at 2.9 percent, falling from 3.7 percent in 2021 and the lowest level since the data release started in 2000.