The number of young people who are unemployed, seeking work, or refusing to look for work surpassed one-point-two-million last month.

According to data from Statistics Korea on Sunday, as of the end of February, one-million-207-thousand people aged 15 to 29 were either unemployed, economically inactive to prepare for a job or jobless without specific reasons.

The figure for the three groups increased by 73-thousand from a year earlier.

Of this total, 269-thousand people were unemployed last month, a two percent increase, or 5,000 more, than a year earlier.

The number of young job seekers stood at 434-thousand in February, while those who opted not to look for work without any specific reason reached 504-thousand last month, the highest level since 2003.

The so-called "discouraged job seekers" give up on looking for work and take time off, despite not suffering from any serious illnesses or disabilities.