South Korea’s jobless rate inched up in October from a month earlier but job creation accelerated, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in September.

The jobless rate adjusted for inflation remained unchanged at 3 percent over the cited period.

Job creation is picking up speed. The number of employed people was 25.54 million in October, up 476,000 from a year earlier. This is up from the previous month’s gain of 463,000, according to the report.

The on-year job growth also represented the largest jump since September last year when 685,000 jobs were added to the economy, the report showed.

“Regular workers continue to increase, while part-time and daily contracted workers are also declining at a slower pace. This helped push the number of jobs created to over 400,000 for the third straight month in October,” the agency said. (Yonhap News)