Seoul, Dec 10 (IANS): Young South Koreans suffered more severe employment shock than older people since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020 and fresh college and high school graduates faced greater difficulty in finding jobs, a report revealed on Friday.

The employment rate for Koreans aged 15-34 reached 50.5 per cent in January, down from 52.8 per cent a year earlier, according to the report by the Statistics Korea Institute.

The corresponding rate for people aged 35-64 came to 71.2 per cent in January, down from 73.6 per cent the previous year, Yonhap News Agency quoted the report as saying.

In particular, those who graduated from college or high schools less than a year ago had more difficulty in finding jobs.

Among them, the employment rate for men who graduated from college or university reported a 12.1 percentage point on-year fall in August and September last year when the country was gripped by the second wave of the pandemic.

For women who graduated from high schools less than a year earlier, the employment rate fell 14.4 percentage points on-year in March and April 2020 and 14.9 percentage points in October and November 2020 from the previous year.