South Korea’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged down to 3.9 percent in October 2018 from 4.0 percent in the previous month, as the number of unemployed declined by 22 thousand to 1.100 million, while the number of employed increased by 25 thousand to 26.837 million. The seasonally-adjusted economic activity participation rate stood at 63.1 percent for the third month. The unemployment rate climbed when compared to the 3.6 percent rate of last year. Unemployment Rate in South Korea averaged 3.64 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 3.80 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 3.90 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.