The number of people who have remained jobless for over one year posted the largest drop in nearly 16 years last month.

According to Statistics Korea on Sunday, four-thousand people remained out of work for more than 12 months as of May, down 14-thousand from a year earlier.

This marks the largest on-year decline since September 2003.

The May figure of four-thousand also marks the lowest since February 2016.

The number of people who remained jobless for over six months stood at 109-thousand in May, down 26-thousand from a year earlier to post a three-year low.

Meanwhile, the number of short-term jobless people who remained out of work for less than three months increased 92-thousand on-year to reach 628-thousand last month.