South Korea's Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki cast concerns over the latest wave in the COVID-19 epidemic having a negative impact on the job market.

Hong forecast the effects to possibly emerge in the December and January data on his social media account on Wednesday, following the release of the November report.

This comes amid a sign of recovery last month, with the margin of decline in new jobs dropping to 273-thousand compared to 421-thousand in October.

The minister vowed to minimize the economic damage from efforts to curb the virus' further spread, and to mobilize all means to accelerate economic and employment recovery.