S. Korea’s Jobless Rate Triples in the Last Year

South Korea on Tuesday said its unemployment rate almost tripled in a year, the latest stunning statistic from Asia, where financial crisis has thrown millions of people out of work.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment in South Korea leaped to 1.49 million in May from 550,000 a year earlier.

Joblessness is soaring across Asia. Indonesia alone is expected to have 20 million unemployed by the end of the year, the World Bank said. That represents 22% of its work force and compares with a rate of 5% in June 1997, before the regional crisis hit.

China, with Asia’s biggest work force, has an official tally of 11.5 million people out of work, but analysts say the real figure is much higher because official statistics do not include so-called xiagang workers sent home from idle factories to live on a fraction of their original wages.

More layoffs are ahead. Beijing has said its overhaul of the ailing state industrial sector will cost 3.5 million workers their jobs this year.

Hong Kong is also feeling the pain, with the unemployment rate at a 15-year high of 4.2%. Officials predict companies will sack more workers to survive the economic slowdown.

Japanese unemployment, while low by global standards, crept up to a record in April: 4.1% of the work force, compared with 3.3% a year ago.

Even dynamic Singapore is learning to live with turbulence in the job market, though its unemployment rate, like Japan’s, is the envy of many. The rate was 2.2% in March, up from 1.8% a year earlier. The government has been telling workers that worse times are coming and workers must upgrade their skills.

Singapore’s northern neighbor Malaysia has responded to the economic upheaval by sending immigrant workers home, as has Thailand, which had 2 million unemployed in April.

Practically the only Asian country bucking the trend of rising unemployment is Taiwan, which Tuesday reported an unemployment rate of 2.37% in May, marginally down from 2.51% a year earlier.