Unemployment rate among South Korean youths posted 11.8 percent in March, hitting a higher rate than any figures tallied in the month when college graduates rushed to seek a job, a government report showed Friday. 
Youth jobless rate for those under 30 was 11.8 percent in March, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It almost tripled the overall unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in the month. 
The youth unemployment rate in March improved compared with an all-time high of 12.5 percent tallied in February, but it was higher than any figures recorded in March in the past. 
The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working-age population, or those above 15. It is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government sets a target at 70 percent in the long term.