South Korea's job market is under strain from not only a rising unemployment rate but also an increasing number of people who have been jobless for a long time, data showed Sunday. 
The number of jobseekers surpassed 1 million in 2016 for the first time since 2000, according to Statistics Korea. 
Of the total, 133,000 were unemployed for more than half a year, accounting for 13.1 % of the unemployed, state news agency (Yonhap) reported. 
It marks the highest number since 13.8 % was posted in 2002. The rate reached double digits in 2015 after staying between 6-9% since 2008. 
The number of people trying to find jobs for one year or longer also topped 9,000, or 0.9%. 
The trend adds to worries that Asia's fourth-biggest economy might have entered a chronic economic slump, not a temporary downturn. 
"Such a long-term unemployment phenomenon appears to be attributable to fierce competition for a declining number of jobs in the face of more jobseekers," a Statistics Korea official said. 
The unemployment problem is expected to exacerbate in 2017 amid the restructuring of the shipping and shipbuilding fields. 
The government and the Bank of Korea predicted that only 260,000 new jobs may be created in the year, with the unemployment rate climbing to 3.9 % from 3.7% in 2016. 
The government allocated 17.1 trillion won (US$14.4 billion) in this year's budget associated with efforts to create jobs and support the unemployed. 
However, the effectiveness of such a plan remains uncertain. The government poured 15.8 trillion won into doing that last year but failed to resolve the problem.