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From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.koreas,clari.news.labor.misc,clari.world.asia+oceania,clari.news.issues,clari.news.labor
Subject: South Korea forecasts record unemployment in February
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qskorea-laborURFph_9FG@clari.net>
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Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 23:22:28 PST
ACategory: international
Slugword: SKorea-labor
Threadword: skorea
Priority: urgent
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   SEOUL, Feb 16 (AFP) - South Korea's jobless rate is forecast to  
hit an all-time high of nine percent in February despite 
improvements in key economic indicators, government data showed 
Tuesday. 
   The rate, projected by the Labor Ministry, is the highest since  
South Korea began making monthly measurements of unemployment in 
1982, Yonhap news agency said. 
   The ministry predicts some two million South Koreans will be  
jobless in February, Yonhap said. 
   For the first quarter of this year the ministry forecast a  
jobless rate of 8.7 percent, higher than its earlier projection of 
8.3 percent. 
   "The number of people searching for jobs went over the initial  
estimate mainly because there is less day-to-day work available, 
less hands needed in agriculture and fisheries and less hiring of 
college graduates," a ministry official was quoted as saying. 
   The official said he hoped the rate would ease to 7.1 percent in  
the last quarter of this year, helped by job creation and economic 
recovery. 
   Economists warn that unemployment will become a major social  
problem in South Korea this year. 
   Unemployment rose to a record high of 6.8 percent last year when  
thousands of firms collapsed. 
  	   	

