South Korea's jobless rate jumps to 4% in Feb

South Korea's jobless rate jumped in February from a month earlier and job creation also slowed sharply, raising worries that labor market conditions will remain bleak down the road, a government report showed Wednesday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 4 percent last month, up from the previous month's 3.4 percent. This is the highest ever since February last year when it was 4.2 percent. The jobless rate adjusted for inflation also rose to 3.5 percent from January's 3.2 percent. Job creation also slowed significantly. About 201,000 jobs were created last month compared with a year earlier, down from 322,000 jobs in January, the report showed. This is the slowest creation of jobs since February 2010 when 125,000 were added to the economy.