Anchor: The number of jobs created in April slipped back below 200-thousand after posting above the mark for two straight months. Meanwhile, the jobless rate peaked at the highest it’s been in nearly two decades.
Park Jong-hong has more. 

Report: Statistics Korea said on Wednesday that the number of employed people reached 27-million-30 thousand last month, up 171-thousand from the same month last year. 

While the figure exceeded the government’s monthly target, it fell below the 200-thousand mark following a two month streak above that level. 

The drop was largely attributed to a decline in jobs in the wholesale and retail sectors by 76-thousand. 

Meanwhile, manufacturing recorded job losses for the 13th consecutive month in April.

The health and social welfare sectors added 127-thousand jobs, while the education service sector saw an increase of 55-thousand jobs last month. 

However, the number of unemployed people in the country stood at nearly one and a quarter million last month, with the jobless rate posting four-point-four percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from last year.

This was the highest unemployment rate for the month of April in 19 years.

The statistics agency explained that the high unemployment rate was due to a surge in young job-seekers applying for the civil service exam and more people in their 60s seeking jobs.

The jobless rate for young adults aged between 15 and 29 rose to eleven-point-five percent, up from ten-point-seven percent last year.
 
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki noted that the creation of new jobs via the boosting of private investment is in urgent order.

His remarks came as the working population of people in their 30s to 40s, the backbone of labor, shrank last month. 
Park Jong-hong, KBS World Radio News.