지난달 실업급여 지급액 1조2천억원…또 '역대 최대' 기록

South Korea paid out a record amount of unemployment benefits last month at around 1 billion dollars.
It's still tough for local job seekers, but it looks like there's been a recovery in the service sector to a certain degree.
Eum Ji-young has the details.
South Korea's unemployment payouts hit an all-time high in July.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government in July paid out roughly 1 billion U.S. dollars in unemployment benefits,… up a whopping 56-point-6 percent compared to a year earlier.
This broke the previous record set just the month before of roughly 935 million dollars.
The amount of unemployment paid has set a new record every month this year since February.
But the data do show some signs of a recovery.
The number of people working and paying into the employment insurance system last month meaning they're employed was around 13-point-9 million people,… a net increase of more than 185-thousand on-year.
"By industry, the recovery is largely focused on the service industry... where the number of subscriptions was up 237-thousand on year and has continued to increase for three straight months.
Within the service industry, there were increases in the sectors of health and welfare, public administration and education services, but there was a decline in food and lodging.
A ministry official said that although it's recovering, the job market is still in a difficult situation.
The manufacturing industry has seen a decrease in employment insurance subscriptions for 11 straight months.
Eum Ji-young Arirang News.