S. Korea's jobless rate drops to 2.9 pct in Oct.

South Korea's jobless rate dropped to 2.9 percent in October as the number of people employed grew at the fastest pace in 17 months, a government report showed Wednesday. The unemployment rate stood at 2.9 percent in October, down 0.4 percentage point from the same month of last year, the Statistics Korea said in a monthly report. The rate was lower than 3 percent tallied in September. The number of unemployed, who failed to land work despite job- hunting efforts, decreased to 736,000 last month from 832,000 a year before. "Accelerated job creation, mainly driven by the service industry, led the number of unemployed to contract sharply, dragging down the jobless rate," the statistical agency said. Jobless rate among those aged between 15 and 29 came in at 6.7 percent in October, down 0.3 percentage point from the previous year. The rate was higher than 6.3 percent recorded in September. The total number of working people reached 24.67 million in October, up 501,000 from a year earlier. The employment rate rose 0.5 percentage point on-year to 59.9 percent last month. The October job growth marked the largest since May 2010 when the number of people finding jobs increased by 586,000. Health and social welfare sector, which drove up the October job growth, created 141,000 jobs last month, with wholesale and retail sector adding 128,000 positions. Science and technology service field employed 74,000 workers last month, while transportation area hired 73,000 workers over the same period. Meanwhile, the number of people employed as regular worker increased by 517,000 in October from a year earlier, with the number for temporary worker rising 5,000 over the same period. Those hired on a daily basis decreased by 91,000 last month from the previous year.