No. of Jobless in Korea Hits 3.46 Million

The number of jobless including the unemployed, people looking for work, those who have given up searching for jobs, those idle without reason, and part-time workers seeking additional hours or new jobs has reached 3.46 million, up 260,000 in a year.

The number of those choosing not to work without reason has set a new high since 2003, when the government began compiling the statistic.

Data released by the National Statistical Office yesterday found 1.77 million people last month saying they are jobless for no reason, up from 1.62 million year-on-year. This category includes those who do not care for children or do house chores, study, prepare themselves for employment, or have health problems.

The number of unemployed people who looked for a job more than once over the past four weeks without success reached 848,000 last month.

Those preparing to land a job numbered 529,000 and that of former workers who have given up looking for jobs 165,000. Accordingly, the number of the unemployed, jobseekers, those who are idle for no reason, and those who have given up looking for work reached 3.3 million last month.

If the figure included 152,000 part-time workers who want to work more than 18 hours per week or are looking for new jobs, 3.46 million Koreans are effectively out of work.

peacechaos@donga.com