The number of people who gave up looking for work after long-term unemployment has reached a record high this year.
 
According to Statistics Korea, the nation's discouraged jobseekers reached a monthly average of 510-thousand from January to August, up 26-thousand or five-point-four percent from a year earlier.
 
That is the highest figure since the nation started compiling the related data in 2004.
 
The number of people without a job for more than six months came to a monthly average of 140-thousand during the cited period, up eight thousand or six percent on-year.
 
The six-month jobless figure also marks the highest since the nation started compiling related data in June 1999.