The pace of recovery in South Korea’s job market has slowed down for the third consecutive month in July due to the kickoff of the toughest social distancing rules adopted to combat the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday.

While employers added 542,000 more jobs on-year last month, extending gains for the fifth consecutive month, its growth momentum has been slowing since May, data compiled by Statistics Korea showed. The overall number of those employed amounted to 27.65 million in July.

The job market notched a record on-year gain of 652,000 in April, which marked the highest surge after August 2014. The figure has seen a gradual slide since April, notching 619,000 in May and 582,000 in June, respectively.

“While the July data had setbacks including the implementation of Level 4 social distancing rules, there were still gains in jobs due to a base effect and fast recovery in exports,” Jeong Dong-myeong, a senior official at Statistics Korea said.

Jeong also pointed to a decline in the number of unemployed behind the latest gain. The number of unemployed shed 218,000 on-year to 920,000 in July and jobless rate dropped 0.8 percentage point to 3.2 percent in the same period.

The fourth wave of infections has been putting daily confirmed cases above 1,000 since early July. The government has since adopted Level 4 social distancing rules, the strictest in the four-tier scheme in Seoul and its adjacent areas.

The social distancing rules have again dampened the mood for the services sector, which had been on track to recovery following the third wave.

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki on Wednesday warned the nation to brace for a setback in the job market in August, saying that the data has yet to reflect the full effects of the latest social distancing rules.

All age groups here saw gains in the number of employed people, except those in their 30s, which has been falling for the 17th straight month as of July. The number of people employed in their 30s fell 0.1 percentage point or 122,000 on-year, with Jeong citing an overall decline in population and the struggling manufacturing sector, in which the age group is actively employed. But the official added that the employment rate of those in their 20s and 30s in the sector has been rebounding.

The manufacturing sector gained 6,000 jobs in July, rebounding slightly after shedding 10,000 the previous month.

The service sector reported further job losses, with the wholesale and retail sector seeing a drop of 186,000 jobs on-year last month, after losing 164,000 the previous month. The accommodation and food service segment lost 12,000 jobs on-year in the cited period, after seeing gains for three straight months.

Due to shocks stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of employed in Asia’s fourth-largest economy fell by 220,000, a record high since 1998, when the country was reeling from the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)