Seoul, Nov 11 (IANS): Job growth in South Korea hit the highest in five months, with the unemployment rate slightly falling, a government report showed on Wednesday.

The number of those employed came in at 26,298,000 in October, up 348,000 from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea.

It marked the highest monthly increase in five months since May when the economy added 379,000 jobs, reported Xinhua.

The economically active population, or people employed and unemployed, increased 504,000 in October from a year earlier. The hiring rate was unchanged at 60.9 percent.

The OECD-method employment rate among those aged 15-64 rose 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier to 66.2 percent in October. The figure for youths aged 15-29 gained 1.1 percentage points to 41.7 percent.

Jobless rate dipped 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 3.1 percent in October, the lowest since November 2013.

The unemployment rate among youths declined 0.6 percentage points to 7.4 percent, marking the lowest since May 2013 when it recorded the identical number.