By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter

Unemployment figures exceeded one million last month for the first time in 10 years, with many economically inactive people engaging in job-seeking activities, Statistics Korea said Wednesday.

The nation's jobless reached 1.21 million in January, up from 848,000 a year earlier, with the rate soaring to 5 percent from 3.6 percent. The figure was the largest since February 2000 when 1.22 million Koreans were unemployed.

"With the government and state-run organizations offering a number of positions as part of nationwide efforts to create jobs, many previously economically inactive individuals began looking for jobs last month. This has pushed up the number of unemployed,"a Statistics Korea official said.

The office calculates the number out of work by subtracting the nation's entire workforce from the economically active population. The jobless are tallied as part of the economically active population, along with the employed. But those who have given up looking for work, and who are studying or undergoing vocational training for employment are classified as part of the economically inactive population, meaning that the official jobless number is much lower than the actual number of Koreans seeking jobs.

Some say that in reality, as many as four million individuals are "practically" out of work amid the tight labor market in the aftermath of the unprecedented global economic slump.

Meanwhile, the number of workers here stood at 22.86 million last month, up 5,000 from the previous month, rising for the first time in three months.

New positions were created for the third consecutive month from August through October.

But the job market resumed its descent in November and December as private companies failed to hire more workers.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr