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South Korea's jobless rate steady at 3.0 percent

SEOUL — South Korea's overall unemployment rate remained steady at 3.0 percent in December, as growth in the number of people finding jobs slowed from the previous month, official data showed Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate has been unchanged since it fell to a 56-month low of 3.0 percent in October, according to Statistics Korea.

The unadjusted jobless rate stood at 2.9 percent in December, compared with 2.8 percent the previous month.

The number of employed people rose by 277,000 in December from the same month a year earlier -- decelerating from November's 353,000 increase -- to 24.402 million.

Among people aged 15 or older, 58.3 percent were employed in December, compared with 59.7 percent in November.

The jobless data came two days before the Bank of Korea's monthly monetary policy meeting over its benchmark interest rate, which has been unchanged at 2.75 percent since its rate cut in October last year.

-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report --