South Korea's job growth has remained anemic in recent months despite the national economy showing signs of a recovery with robust exports, according to data on Sunday.
The South Korean economy added about 112,000 new jobs in March and 104,000 new jobs in February, the data by Statistics Korea showed.
It is the first time in almost two years that the number of new jobs remained at the 100,000-mark for two consecutive months.
South Korea's exports rose 6.1 percent in March from a year earlier, thanks largely to strong demand for semiconductors and petrochemical goods.
(Yonhap)
Experts said the nation's job market remained sluggish despite that economic growth as it depended heavily on the semiconductor industry, which tends to generate fewer jobs.
Data showed the semiconductor segment's exports generated 110,000 additional jobs in 2016, while that of the automobile sector reported 230,000.
In March, the unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent, up 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier.
The government proposed a 3.9 trillion-won ($3.64 billion) extra budget earlier this month, largely to create new jobs for young people, amid deepening concerns about high unemployment, which the government warned could have catastrophic consequences.
The government hopes that with the pledged support, the nation's youth unemployment could fall below 8 percent by 2021 and upwards of 220,000 jobs could be newly added through 2021.(Yonhap)