S. Korea's unemployment hits 11-year high

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) -- The number of unemployed South Korean workers aged 25-39 years has hit an 11-year high, rising 2.9 percent from a year ago in the first 11 months of this year, statistics showed Sunday.

Data from the Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea showed 248,000 workers in that
age bracket lost their jobs from January to November this year, despite the
government's efforts to boost their employment.
The figure is the highest since 1998, when the country lost some 598,000 of those
workers amid the Asian financial crisis.
South Korea's export-oriented economy had been hit hard by the global economic
downturn, but the economy has recently shown signs of recovery.
Despite the economic recovery, economists say those workers may bear the brunt of
a tough job market next year.
"The number of jobs ... may be shrunk for the time being," said Sohn Min-joong, a
researcher at Samsung Economic Research Institute.
In November, the nation's overall jobless rate rose for the first time in five
months to 3.5 percent.
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