South Korea's overall job market seems to be improving,... with the number of newly-employed people reaching an 18-month high.
But it wasn't all good news.
Kim Da-mi explains why.
South Korea's unemployment rate reached 3-point-9 percent in July, despite the creation of nearly 300-thousand new jobs.
Statistics Korea said on Wednesday, the number of unemployed people last month was around 1-point-1 million,... up almost 60-thousand from a year ago.
That figure also marks the highest level of unemployment for July in 19 years.
The unemployment rate was especially high for people in their 20s and over 60s.
By sector, the number of jobs continued to decline on-year in manufacturing and finance, where jobs are generally of a high quality.
The number of people working in manufacturing dropped almost 100-thousand... falling for the 7th month in a row.
However, the total number of people in employment last month increased to around 27 million,... up 299-thousand on-year.
The rate of increase has surpassed the 200-thousand mark for the 3rd consecutive month.
New jobs were created mainly in the health and social work sectors.
Statistics Korea said the reason the newly created jobs aren't leading to a fall in the unemployment rate is because of more over-60s re-entering the workforce.
KIM Da-mi, Arirang News.