The number of employed last month rose to 29.16 million, or 245,000 more than in May last year. Shown are people on June 10 queuing up at the West Busan Job Fair at the waiting room of Gangseo-gu Office Station in Busan's Gangseo-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

Growth in the number of workers nationwide last month marked a 13-month high.

Statistics Korea on June 11 said this in its employment trend report for May, estimating the number of employed at 29.16 million, 245,000 more than in the same month last year.

This was the first time for the figure to exceed 200,000 since 261,000 in April last year.

The employment rate for people in the 15-64 age range, a comparative standard used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was 70.5%, up half a percentage point.

By sector, health and social welfare services saw the biggest growth in personnel with 233,000, up 7.7%, followed by professional and science and technology services with 117,000 (8.4%) and finance and insurance 72,000 (9.6%).

Among industries that saw a decline, agriculture and fisheries lost 135,000 workers (8.3%), construction 106,000 (5.1%) and manufacturing 67,000 (1.5%).

The unemployment rate also declined two-tenths of a percentage point to 2.8%.

aisylu@korea.kr