South Korea loses 982,000 jobs

South Korea reported a 982,000 drop in the number of people employed in January, its largest job loss since December 1998 due to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

The number of employed South Koreans reached 25.8 million last month, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

In December 1998, the country lost 1.28 million jobs due to the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

South Korea has reported job losses every month since March when it lost about 195,000 jobs, the first on-year job loss since 2009.

The country's jobless rate increased 1.6 percent on-year to 5.7 percent last month.

The finance ministry attributed the job losses to the strengthened measures to contain the third wave of the COVID-19. He added that especially affected was the service sector.

Accommodation facilities, restaurants, and retailers were the worst hit, losing 586,000 jobs from last year.