The number of jobless in Korea exceeded the one million mark in the third quarter, a first since the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1999.
According to data by Statistics Korea, the average monthly number of the unemployed was 1.06 million from July to September, up 102,000 from a year earlier.
The figure is the highest for the third quarter since 1.33 million in 1999.
The statistical agency says the country has seen its quarterly jobless rate exceed one million at other times but mostly in the first or second quarters, which are the prime hiring seasons.
The jobless rate also rose in the third quarter to 3.8 percent, up 0.4 percentage point on-year, marking the sharpest increase since the fourth quarter of 2014.■
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