SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's employment growth fell below 100,000 in four months due to a continued job slide in the manufacturing, construction, and wholesale and retail industries, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The number of employed people aged 15 and older rose 83,000, or 0.3 percent, from a year earlier to 28,847,000 in October after falling for the past three months, according to Statistics Korea.

Employment among manufacturers declined 33,000 in October compared with the same month of last year, keeping a downward trend for the fourth straight month.

Jobs lost in the construction and wholesale and retail industries stood at 93,000 and 148,000 each, continuing to go down for the sixth and the eighth consecutive month respectively.

The number of jobs in the health and social welfare, the education service, and the science and technology service picked up 97,000, 84,000 and 77,000 each last month.

The overall job expansion was driven by the elderly people. The number of jobs for those aged 60 or older advanced 257,000 in October on a yearly basis, while the figure for those in their 30s and 50s grew 67,000 and 12,000 each.

Employment among those aged 15-29 dived 182,000, and jobs for those in their 40s reduced 72,000.

The number of regular and irregular employees mounted 91,000 and 105,000 each, but the reading for daily laborers diminished 100,000 last month.

The number of the self-employed who hired employees retreated 7,000, but the figure for the self-employed without workers swelled 44,000.

Employment rate for those aged 15 and older stood unchanged at 63.3 percent in October.

The number of unemployed people was 678,000 in October, up 51,000 from a year earlier. Unemployment rate gained 0.2 percentage points to 2.3 percent.

The economically inactive population, who had no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, grew 21,000 from a year earlier to 16,082,000 in October. Enditem

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