코로나에 취업자 넉달째 감소…6월 기준 실업률 1999년이후 최고

Our top story this afternoon.
South Korea is facing an employment crisis with another brutal report from the government showing the enormous toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on workers in the country.
Eum Ji-young has the details.
Due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea has seen a four-month-long downward trend in the number of people in work.
This is the first time since between October 2009 and January 2010 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis that the figure has been lower on-year for four months in a row.
According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of employed people was around 27-million-55-thousand,... down 352-thousand from the same month a year earlier.
The unemployment rate in June was 4-point-3 percent,... the highest for the month of June since records began in 1999. The number of unemployed for the month of June also reached an all-time high since 1999.
Apart from people aged over 60, all age brackets saw a decrease in the number of people employed and the employment rate.
Breaking it down by sector, the biggest job losses were found in the restaurant and lodging sectors which saw 186-thousand job losses,... down seven-point-nine percent on-year.
The wholesale and retail sector had a four-point-eight percent decrease and the education service industry saw a four-point-six percent drop on-year.
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a social media post on Wednesday that he is worried about the situation but added that it is showing signs of recovery when compared to April and May as the size of the decrease is getting smaller.
He said he is taking the situation seriously and will try to speed up projects to create more than 570-thousand jobs in the third COVID-19 supplementary budget as well as accelerate the Korean New Deal projects.
Eum Ji-young Arirang News.