The nation's economic misery index in January climbed to a record high for the first month of the year.

Citing data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, main opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hoi-jae reported that the misery index, calculated by summing the unemployment and inflation rates, reached eight-point-eight last month.

Created by economist Arthur Okun to gauge how the average citizen is doing economically, the index for this January was the highest for the month since the unemployment rate calculation was revised in June 1999.

Last month, the unemployment rate marked three-point-six percent, while inflation hit five-point-two percent.

The previous record for the month of January was logged in 2010, when the index marked eight-point-five, with the unemployment rate at five percent and inflation at three-point-five percent.