Job openings in South Korea dropped to an 88-month low, worsening the country's job condition amid a growing jobless rate.

According to the Korean Statistical Information Service on Sunday, nationwide job openings for businesses with one or more employees stood at 166-thousand-700 on the last working day of January, down nearly 40-thousand from a year earlier.

The drop is the sharpest since September 2011, when 60-thousand-850 positions vanished. Job openings posted a decrease for 12 consecutive months since February last year.

Job vacancies tallied by the information service refers to businesses posting notices seeking workers to start within a month. This is used as a measure of a labor market's ability to absorb workers.