As the job market for youths further tightens, unemployment has worsened among those with higher education.

The number of jobless people with a university diploma or higher accounted for more than half of the total unemployed in the country for the first time ever in this year's second quarter.

Statistics Korea data on Saturday showed 546-thousand college graduates were unemployed in the April to June period, up eleven-point-eight percent year-on-year.

It is the second straight quarter for the figure to top 500-thousand and a record high since unemployment measuring standards were revised in 1999.

In the second quarter, over one million South Koreans were unemployed.

Fifty-point-five percent of this total were people with a university diploma, marking the first time for college graduates to account for more than half of the unemployment total since 1999.

The jobless figures refer to active job seekers who have yet to land a job.