The number of young people who are unemployed and yet refused to look for jobs hit a record high in July.

According to Statistics Korea on Sunday, 443-thousand people aged 15 to 29 were economically inactive in July, doing nothing to make money or search for jobs. The figure was up 42-thousand from a year earlier.

The figure is the largest for July since the nation started compiling related statistics.

About 335-thousand, or 75 percent, of the people said that they had no intention of finding jobs.

Most unemployed people actively look for jobs, but these people do not. They give up seeking jobs and just "take time off," though they have no serious illnesses or disabilities.

The number of these so-called "discouraged job seekers," which stayed in the 200-thousand range between 2013 and 2017, surpassed 300-thousand in 2018 and climbed to 441-thousand in 2020. The number dropped to 361-thousand in 2022 but grew back again to 402-thousand last year.