South Korea Jobless Rate Highest Since Mid-2021

(RTTNews) - South Korea's unemployment rate rose to the highest level in three-and-a-half years in December as political turmoil added economic uncertainty and weighed on business sentiment, official data showed Wednesday.

The unemployment rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.7 percent in December from 2.7 percent in the previous month, Statistics Korea reported. This was the highest since June 2021.

In the same period last year, the jobless rate was at 3.2 percent.

On an unadjusted basis, the jobless rate stood at 3.8 percent, up from 2.2 percent in November and 3.3 percent in December 2023.

The number of unemployed increased 171,000 from the last year to 1.11 million. At the same time, employment declined 52,000 from a year ago, marking the first fall since February 2021.

The Bank of Korea is set to announce its monetary policy decision on January 16. With inflation under control, the bank is widely expected to cut its benchmark rate again by a quarter-point to support economy. The bank had lowered the interest rates twice last year.

Advance GDP estimates for the fourth quarter and full year is due on January 23. The BoK has earlier projected the economy to expand 2.2 percent in 2024 and 1.9 percent this year.