South Korea's jobless rate inched down in June from a month earlier, but job creation slowed for the fourth straight month, a government report showed Wednesday, raising concerns that employment conditions are getting tough for job seekers.
According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3.5% last month, down from 3.6% tallied in May. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also fell to 3.6% from the previous month's 3.7%.
The number of employed people came to 25.88 million in June, up 398,000 from a year earlier. This marked the fourth-straight month that job growth has slowed since February, when the on-year increase came to 835,000, the report showed.
Manufacturing drove job creation by adding 165,000 jobs to the economy. The health and social welfare service sector also added 148,000 jobs, while the lodging and dining sector hired 129,000 more people, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.
The jobless rate for young people aged 15-29 stood at 9.5% last month, up from the previous year's 8.7%. It is also higher than the 7.9% tallied a year earlier, the report showed.
The number of unemployed people -- those who tried but were unable to land a job -- totaled 949,000 in June, down from the previous month's 951,000, according to the report.
The government worried that a protracted economic slowdown could negatively affect employment down the road, saying that it is necessary to draw up measures to boost domestic demand and inject vitality into the economy.