South Korea Dec 2022 unemployment rate rises to 11-month high

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's unemployment rate rose to an 11-month high in December 2022, while the annual increase in employed people marked the smallest in 21 months, official data showed on Wednesday.

The country's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for December stood at 3.3%, higher than 2.9% in November and the highest since January, according to Statistics Korea.

In the 12 months through December, the number of employed people increased by 509,000, extending a run of year-on-year gains to a 22nd straight month but marking the smallest annual increase since March 2021.

For the year 2022, South Korea's annual unemployment rate stood at 2.9%, falling from 3.7% in 2021 and the lowest level since the data release started in 2000.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Chris Reese)