KOREA'S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES TO 3 PCT IN DEC.

AsiaPulse News, January, 2003

SEOUL, Jan 16 Asia Pulse - An influx of job seekers pushed up the country's unemployment rate for the third straight month to 3.0 per cent in December, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said Thursday.

The office said the 0.3 percentage point rise from the preceding month pushed up the number of people out of work from 615,000 to 664,000, though this represented a decrease of 98,000 people from the same period in 2002 when 762,000 were seeking employment.

The tally also means that the unemployment rate for 2002 stood at 3.0 per cent. The corresponding figures for 2000 and 2001 stood at 4.1 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.

The overall number of workers fell 1.7 per cent, or 370,000, from the month before to 21.69 million in December....