SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's employment grew last month on a rapid increase in elderly jobs, statistical office data showed Friday.

The number of employed people aged 15 or higher gained 380,000 from a year earlier to 27,743,000 in January, according to Statistics Korea. It has marked the fastest growth in 10 months since March last year.

The overall job expansion was driven by the elderly people. The number of jobs for those aged 60 or older advanced 350,000 in January from a year earlier, but the figures for those in their 20s and 40s fell 47,000 and 42,000 each.

The number of jobs among manufacturers rose 20,000 in January on a yearly basis after growing 10,000 in the prior month.

Employment in the health and social welfare services, the science and technology and the construction sectors went up 104,000, 73,000 and 73,000, respectively.

Jobs lost in the real estate and education services segments stood at 28,000 and 13,000 last month.

The number of regular and irregular employees climbed 320,000 and 137,000 each, but the reading for daily laborers shrank 82,000 last month.

The number of self-employed who hired workers increased 30,000, while the figure for the self-employed without employees decreased 1,000.

The employment rate for those aged 15 or older went up 0.7 percentage points over the year to 61.0 percent in January, while the OECD-method hiring rate for those aged 15-64 rose 0.9 percentage points to 68.7 percent.

The number of unemployed people came in at 1,072,000 in January, up 48,000 from a year earlier. The jobless rate added 0.1 percentage point to 3.7 percent.

The expanded jobless rate retreated 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier to 10.0 percent in January, while the corresponding rate for those aged 15-29 slumped 1.3 percentage points to 15.6 percent.

The official unemployment rate gauges those who are immediately available for work but failed to get a job for the past four weeks, despite efforts to seek a job actively.

The expanded jobless rate, called labor underutilization indicator, adds those who are discouraged from searching for a job, those who work part-time against their will to work full-time, and those who prepare to get a job after college graduation, to the official unemployment rate.

The economically inactive population, who had no willingness to seek a job and remained unemployed, lost 267,000 over the year to 16,699,000 in January.

The reading for discouraged job seekers picked up 11,000 to 398,000 last month.

The number of the "take-a-rest" group, who replied that they took a rest during a job survey period, dipped 108,000 to 2,546,000.

The take-a-rest group is considered important as it can include those who are too discouraged to seek a job for an extended period. Enditem

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