In March, the commodity balance failed to get out of the red for the sixth consecutive month, but thanks to dividend income, the overall current account balance managed to turn black for the first time in three months.

According to the provisional statistics on the balance of payments released today (3th), the current account balance in March this year was recorded as a surplus of 6 million dollars (about 10.3 billion won).

It is the first surplus in three months after posting two consecutive months of deficits in 2 years in January (-$7.3 billion) and February (-$582 million).

However, the surplus is $1.42 billion less than in March last year ($1.2 billion).

In the first quarter (January-March), the overall current account balance posted a deficit of $5.2 billion.

The number of people employed last month was 11,2 more than a year ago.

However, youth employment and manufacturing employment continued to decline.

According to the "Employment Trends for April" released by the National Statistics Office today, the number of employed people last month was 3,3,67, an increase of 7,65 from the same month last year.

This is less than the increase in the number of people employed in March (1,1) but more than the increase in the number of people employed in February (3,44).

Employment growth slowed for nine consecutive months from June last year, then rebounded for the first time in 6 months in March before slowing again last month.

By age, the number of people employed over 1 increased by 35,4, and among those over 4, there was a decrease of 2,843.

In particular, the number of young people (2 to 35 years old) employed decreased by 4,3 for the sixth consecutive month, and the number of employed people in their 46s decreased by 9,2, for the 31th consecutive month.

The number of people employed in their 2s and 6s has increased.

By sector, manufacturing employment fell by 9,3 for the fourth month in a row.

This is the largest decline in 10 months since December 60 (44,2).

The lodging and restaurant industry (60,8) and the health and welfare industry (8,15) saw an increase in employment.

The employment rate for those aged 29 and over was 13.7%, up 6.40 percentage points from a year ago.

The number of unemployed fell by 2,2 to 10,30, and the unemployment rate fell 50.9 percentage points to 7.2020%.

"The employment rate for those aged 12 and over is the highest in April since the monthly statistics were compiled in July 11, the unemployment rate is the lowest since the June 28 standard was changed, and the number of unemployed is the lowest since April 17," said the director of the Social Statistics Bureau of the Seounju Statistics Office.