S. Korea unemployment falls to 2.8%

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SEOUL, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- South Korea's October jobless rate dipped to 2.8 percent from September's 2.9 percent, but month-to-month job creation plunged, the government said Wednesday.

In October, only 396,000 jobs were added to economy year-on-year, down from 685,000 jobs year-on-year in September, Statistics Korea said.

The job creation numbers raised concerns about sluggish conditions in the labor market, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Jobs in the manufacturing sector grew 3.6 percent from a year earlier, while that of the lodging sector and restaurants grew 4.4 percent, the report said. The health and social welfare service and the education service sectors also added jobs.

Labor market conditions for young people worsened, with the jobless rate for those in the 15-29 age group rising to 6.9 percent in October from September's 6.7 percent.

Yonhap said while think tanks were downwardly revising their outlook for South Korea's economic growth to about 2 percent, the government stuck to its previous forecast of 3.3 percent growth this year and 4 percent in 2013. South Korea is Asia's fourth largest economy, behind China, Japan and India.