The number of people in South Korea who have left their jobs within the past year declined for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

According to the office of ruling Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Park Kwang-on on Thursday, based on Statistics Korea data, three-point-58 million people left their employment within the past year as of March 2021.

The latest tally dropped by 365-thousand compared to a year earlier, the first such decline since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Those who were forced to leave due to the economic slowdown rose by 24-thousand on-year to one-point-84 million as of March. The increase, however, is significantly lower than the 557-thousand on-year jump in February.

Sixty percent of those forced to leave their employment had worked for a company hiring less than ten people. Sixty-four percent were temporary workers.