South Korea's jobless rate fell to 3.5 percent last month from a year earlier as job creation kept its solid growth trend in the service industry, a government report showed Wednesday.

The unemployment rate stood at 3.5 percent in January, down 0.3 percentage points from the same month last year, according to Statistics Korea. The rate was up 0.5 percentage points from a month before.

The number of unemployed, who failed to land work despite job- hunting efforts, reached 853,000 last month, down 65,000 from the previous year. "Sharp growth in job creation, mainly driven by the service sector, led the number of unemployed to shrink last month,"the statistical agency said in a press release.

The jobless rate among those aged between 15 and 29 came in at 8.0 percent in January, down 0.5 percentage points from a year before. The rate was up 0.3 percentage points from a month earlier.

The total number of working people grew 536,000 on-year to reach 23.73 million in January, posting the fourth straight month of jobs being created over 400,000. The employment rate rose 0.6 percentage points on-year to 57.4 percent last month.

By industry, the wholesale and retail sector, which drove up the January job growth, created 104,000 jobs last month, with the health and social welfare service industry employing 86,000 workers. The construction industry added 86,000 positions, while transportation sector hired 73,000 workers last month.

Meanwhile, the number of people employed as regular worker increased by 465,000 in January from a year earlier, and the number of temporary workers grew by 21,000 over the same period. But the number of workers hired on a daily basis decreased 133,000 last month from a year earlier.