Employment in construction falls for 21st straight month

SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- The number of employees in South Korea's construction
sector has plummeted for the 21st straight month, government figures showed
Saturday.
The figures released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the
number of workers in the construction sector for the month of April dropped to
1.77 million, down 6.7 percent from 1.9 million for the previous month.
The decline has continued since August 2007 in the longest drop since 1982, when
the South Korean government started to collect employment data from the sector.
The second-longest decline was over the 20 months from November 1997 to June
1999, during the Asian Financial Crisis.
In April, the construction sector also reported its largest yearly drop in the
almost ten years since May 1999, when employment dropped by 9.0 percent compared
to the previous year.
The drop has accelerated in last months, falling by more 3.9 percent in March
following a 1.0 percent drop in February.
ygkim@yna.co.kr
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