South Korea’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent in December 2018. It put an end to three consecutive months of declines. The jobless rate currently stands at a 5-month low. In December, the number of unemployed fell by 5 thousand to 1.059 million and the number of employed decreased by 77 thousand to 26.889 million. The seasonally-adjusted economic activity participation rate dropped to 63.1 percent from 63.3 percent. The jobless rate was at 3.7 percent in December of 2017. Unemployment Rate in South Korea averaged 3.65 percent from 1999 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 7.10 percent in June of 1999 and a record low of 3 percent in September of 2002.
Unemployment Rate in South Korea is expected to be 3.90 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in South Korea to stand at 3.70 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the South Korea Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 3.70 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.