South Korea's jobless rate fell to 4.2 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 4.2 percent in February, down 0. 3 percentage points from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. From a month before, the rate jumped 0.7 percentage points.

The on-month jump was mainly attributed to seasonal factors such as stronger job-searching efforts by the soon-to-be-graduates, but the on-year rate fell due to growth in job creation driven by the service sector, the statistical agency said.

The number of the unemployed, who failed to land work despite job-hunting efforts, reached 1,042,000 last month, down 52,000 from the previous year.

The jobless rate among those aged between 15 and 29 came in at 8.3 percent in February, down 0.2 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 447,000 on-year to reach 23.78 million in February, posting the fifth straight month of jobs being created over 400,000. The employment rate rose 0.6 percentage points on-year to 63 percent.

By industry, the health and social welfare service industry, which drove up the February job growth, created 78,000 jobs last month, with the construction sector employing 77,000 workers. The transportation industry added 72,000 positions, while the wholesale and retail sector hired 71,000 workers.

Meanwhile, the number of people employed as a regular worker increased by 417,000 in February from a year earlier, and the number temporary workers grew by 95,000 over the same period. But the number of workers hired on a daily basis decreased by 143,000 last month from a year before.