Pusan has highest jobless rate

Pusan registered the nation's highest unemployment rate in November at 6.0 percent. A report on regional economic trends published by the National Statistical Office Wednesday put the southernmost port city at the top of the jobless scale as of the end of last November, while placing South Chungchong and North Kyongsang provinces at the bottom with 2.0 percent each.

Kwangju (5 percent), Seoul (4.4 percent), Taegu (4.4 percent), Taejon (4.1 percent) and Inchon (3.9 percent) had more jobless people than the national average of 3.6 percent; while Cheju (2.1 percent), Kangwon (2.2 percent), North Chungchong (2.8 percent) and South Cholla (2.8 percent) had lower than average rates. As for Pusan, its annual rate of 9.1 percent in 1999 was its worst-ever rate.

In North Cholla province, 1.79 percent of checks were dishonored, giving it the highest rate in the country, followed by Inchon (1.05 percent) and Taegu (1.03 percent). The number of bad checks was low in Ulsan (0.17 percent), Kangwon province (0.17 percent) and South Chungchong province (0.19 percent). The higher level of dishonored checks was blamed on the idling of Daewoo car plants in Inchon and North Cholla province, and by the bankruptcy of the Samsung commercial vehicle unit in Taegu.

Investment in construction in North Cholla province increased 750 percent in November from a year earlier, showing the sharpest upturn. The huge increase owed largely to the massive expansion of roads in and around Kunsan.

Industrial output rose from the same month a year earlier in Kyonggi province (20.7 percent), Taejon (19.9 percent) and Cheju province (10.5 percent); production was down in North Chungchong province (-14.5 percent), Inchon (-13.0 percent) and Taegu (-6.7 percent).