SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's employment fell 218,000 last year, marking the first yearly slide in 11 years, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of those employed was 26,904,000 in 2020, down 218,000 from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. It was the first decline in 11 years since 2009 when the economy was roiled by the global financial crisis.
The employment fall came on the back of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of those unemployed was 1,108,000 in 2020, up 45,000 from the prior year.
The jobless rate added 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 4.0 percent in 2020, marking the highest since 2001. Enditem