SEOUL: South Korea’s unemployment rate surged to an 11-year high in December, while the number of employed plunged at the fastest rate in over two decades, as stringent COVID-19 curbs at home intensified pressure on businesses.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 4.6% in the final month of 2020, up from 4.1% in November and the worst since January 2010. For the 2020 year it stood at 4.0%, the highest since 2001, data from the Statistics Korea showed on Wednesday. The data also showed the number of employed was 26.5 million in December, 628,000 fewer than a year earlier, marking the worst downturn since February 1999. “Damages on retail, accommodation and restaurant businesses were the biggest strain for December figures,” Statistics Korea official told Reuters. Breakdowns showed workers at retailers, accommodation facilities and restaurants were the hardest hit last month, as the numbers of new jobs fell 511,000 from a year earlier.