Statistics Korea

Help > FAQ > Total

board view
Title	What is the difference between the unemployment rate and seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate?
Employment indicators such as the unemployment rate are affected by not only business cycle driven factors but also non-cyclical factors such as seasonal factors and irregular factors. For example, the number of unemployed persons shows a significant increase during the period when job-seeking activities thrive due to seasonal events such as graduation and recruitment exams (i.e. in winter). Hence, we release both original indicators and seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rates after removing seasonal factors. In general, the unemployment rate which is the original indicator is used to understand the changes in indicators compared to the same month of the previous year. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is used to analyze business cycle trend and to compare with the previous month.