Statistics Korea says that the growth of the number of people who have remained jobless for more than six months hit an all-time high last month.
 
The statistics agency said Wednesday that 182-thousand people remained out of work for six months or longer as of last month, up 62-thousand from the same month last year.
 
The growth is the highest since June 1999, when the unemployed began to be defined as those who are on the hunt for a job for four weeks or more, up from the previous one week.
 
The number of last month’s long-term jobless people is also the largest to be posted in the month of August since 1999.
 
The number of the long-term unemployed has been growing by an average of ten to 20-thousand each month since 2014, after repeating a cycle of decrease and increase until 2013.
 
As a result, the portion of long-term jobless people among the total unemployed is quickly increasing. Last month, long-term jobless people accounted for over 18 percent of the total unemployed, the highest since September 1999 when the nation was in the grip of a financial crisis.
 
The rate of long-term jobless people reached 20 percent in 1999 but hovered around seven to eight percent since 2010.