Seoul, June 11 (QNA) - South Korea lost 40,000 jobs in May from a year earlier, marking the first decline in 17 months.

The Korean Ministry of Data and Statistics said in a statement that the number of employed people came to 29.12 million last month, compared with 29.16 million in the same month a year earlier.

It marked the first decrease since December 2024, when the number of jobs fell by 52,000.

Job growth had remained in the 200,000 range in February and March before slowing to 74,000 in April, the statement added.

The country's jobless rate came to 2.9 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. The number of unemployed people totaled 878,000 in May, up 25,000 over the period. (QNA)