S.Korea's employment falls 473K in Feb

Seoul, March 17 (IANS) South Korea's employment fell 473,000 in February from a year earlier, continuing to slide for 12 straight months against the backdrop of Covid pandemic, statistical office data showed on Wednesday.The number of those employed was 26,365,000 in February, down 473,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea, Xinhua reported.The employment kept skidding for 12 months in a row since March last year amid the prolonged pandemic.It was down from the reduction of 982,000 jobs tallied in January as the government eased social-distancing rules last month.The number of those unemployed was 1,353,000 in February, up 201,000 from a year ago.Jobless rate increased 0.8 percentage points over the year to 4.9 percent last month.
--IANS int/