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According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) South Korea's small and medium-sized enterprises have hired 167,864 young job seekers since June last year, helped by improved working conditions and welfare benefits, a business lobbying group for SMEs said Friday.

The hirings of young workers at 39,456 SMEs came after the country's 15 SMEs-related organizations vowed in May last year to make their member companies hire at least one young worker in the following year, according to the Korea Federation of SMEs.

The Korea Federation of SMEs and the Small and Medium Business Administration released the hirings outcome for the past 12 months after attending an event in Cheong Wa Dae during which President Park Geun-hye gave awards to SMEs with strong business performances and records of hiring young people on Friday.

Since 2009, the annual event has taken place at the presidential house on the third week of May.

The Park government has stepped up efforts to increase the employment rate among young generations, mostly in their 20s. But companies have become more reluctant to hire new workers amid a prolonged economic slowdown and an ongoing restructuring of the shipping and shipbuilding industries.

The country's unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in April, from 4.3 percent a month earlier. But the jobless rate for young people, aged between 15 and 29, was higher at 10.9 percent last month, slightly down from 11.8 percent a month ago, according to Statistics Korea.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr

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