The number of employees in South Korea’s manufacturing industry has dropped at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis.
 
According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, 25-million-689-thousand were employed in South Korea as of January, up by 243-thousand from a year earlier. It is the weakest job growth in the country since February of last year, when 223-thousand jobs were added.
 
The weak job growth was in part attributed to a slump in the manufacturing industry, where 160-thousand jobs were lost compared to a year earlier. It is the biggest decline since losing 173-thousand jobs in July of 2009.
 
The employment rate stood at 58-point-nine percent in January, up by zero-point-one percentage point from a year earlier.
 
The employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 edged up by zero-point-three percentage points to 65-point-five percent. The youth employment rate, or the rate for those aged 15 to 29, rose by point-one of a percentage point to 41-point-eight percent.
 
The unemployment rate was tallied at three-point-eight percent in January, the highest in nine months since three-point-nine percent in April of last year.
 
The youth unemployment rate was eight-point-six percent, but the virtual youth unemployment rate, which took into consideration the de-facto unemployed such as part-timers, surged to 11-point-six percent.