Seoul: South Korea added nearly 200,000 jobs in March, marking the third consecutive month of job growth, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 28.59 million last month, up 193,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the country had posted a net increase of 135,000 jobs in January, reversing a 52,000 decrease in the previous month. In February, South Korea added 136,000 new positions.

The employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 increased 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier to 69.3 percent in March, while the jobless rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 3.1 percent, the data showed.