Employment insurance subscriptions, a gauge of job growth, rose by nearly 430-thousand in August from a year earlier. 

Labor ministry data showed on Tuesday that 14-million-863-thousand people have been subscribing to the state-funded employment insurance program as of the end of last month, up by 426-thousand from the same month last year. 

A continued recovery in the manufacturing industry from the pandemic was partly responsible for the increase in subscriptions, with the number of subscribers in the sector rising for the 20th consecutive month to three-million-676-thousand. 

The service industry added 315-thousand subscriptions to 10-million-263-thousand; however, the number of subscribers in public administration services declined by some 25-thousand due to the downsizing in the state job augmentation project put in place amid the pandemic. 

Unemployment benefits designed to help job searchers amounted to around 986 billion won last month, down by four-point-nine percent from a month earlier, while the number of the recipients of such allowances dropped by 44-thousand to 603-thousand.