South Korea’s labour force (made up of both employed and unemployed people) is growing, according to the latest figures from the Korea Institute of Labor (KIL).

KIL findings reveal the labour force stood at 26.4m in the first quarter of 2015, a 1.6% increase on the same period last year.

KIL figures also show the female labour force grew quicker than the male, with just over 11m women joining, up 2.3% from the same period last year. The male workforce increased 1.1% to just over 15.3m.

Total employment at 25.7m, in Q1 2015, was an increase of 1.4% on last year. By gender, male employment increased 1% to 14.7m, and female employment increased 2.1% to 10.6m.

Industries that added jobs in Q1 2015 include manufacturing (a 3.2% increase on Q1 last year); construction (4.3%); wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food services (2.5%); and business, personal and public services (1.3%).

Industries that saw a decrease in jobs were agriculture, forestry and fishing (-7.3%); and electricity, transportation, telecommunications and finance (-0.9%).

Among wage earners, the number of permanent workers rose to 12.3m, an increase of 3%; the number of temporary workers rose to 4.9m, an increase of 1.7%; and the number of daily workers rose by 0.3% to 1.5m.