Amid worsened employment conditions, South Korea’s unemployment rate exceeded that of Japan's for the eleventh consecutive month in January.
 
According to Statistics Korea data, South Korea’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at three-point-four percent in January, up one-tenth of a percentage point compared to Japan’s jobless rate.
 
A seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is an attempt to measure and remove the influences of regular seasonal patterns to reveal how the rate changes from month to month.
 
South Korea’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has continuously remained higher than Japan's since February 2015.
 
The last time South Korea’s rate exceeded that of Japan’s for such a long period of time was in 1999 when the nation was hit by the Asian financial crisis.