South Korea January jobless rate rises to highest in nine years

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's unemployment rate rose to a nine-year high in January as jobs were shed in manufacturing and construction sectors amid rising minimum wages, deepening economic policy frustrations for President Moon Jae-in.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent in January in seasonally adjusted terms, from 3.8 percent in December, Statistics Korea said in a report on Wednesday.

That is the labour market's worst performance since January 2010, when the economy was still reeling from the global financial crisis and the jobless rate reached 4.7 percent.

(Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)