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 April, down 0.2 percentage point from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. From a month before, the rate was down 0.2 percentage point.

The jobless rate fell last month due mainly to persistent growth of monthly job creation in the service sector, but the figure declined at a relatively slow pace as later-than-planned civil service exam increased the number of people who prepares for job-finding.

The country's unemployment rate gauges the percent of people unemployed who actively sought jobs over the past four weeks to the economically active population, or the sum of people employed and those unemployed.

The number of people unemployed, who failed to land work despite job-hunting efforts, reached 895,000 last month, down 41,000 from a year earlier.

The jobless rate among those aged between 15 and 29 came in at 8.5 percent in April, down 0.2 percentage point from a year before. The rate was up 0.2 percentage point from the previous month.

The total number of people employed grew 455,000 on-year to reach 24.76 million in April, the seventh straight month of creating over 400,000 jobs.

The hiring rate, which gauges the percent of the number of people working to working age population, or those aged 15 and over, rose 0.4 percentage point on-year to 59.7 percent in April. The employment rate is an alternative measure to the jobless rate for assessing labor market conditions.

By industry, the health and social welfare service industry, which drove up the April job growth, created 111,000 jobs last month, with the education service industry employing 84,000 workers. The wholesale and retail service sector added 81,000 positions, while the science and technology service industry hired 56,000 workers.

The number of people employed as a regular worker increased 339,000 in April from a year earlier, and the number of temporary workers grew 167,000 over the same period. But the number of workers hired on a daily basis contracted 185,000 last month.

The number of those working less than 36 hours per week reached 3,367,000 as of the end of April, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier. Among them, involuntary part-time workers came in at 366,000, down from 395,000 a year before.

The involuntary part-time workers are those who want to work full time and are available to do so, but they are employed part time as their hours are cut back involuntarily or they are unable to find a full time job.

As of end-April, people working less than 18 hours per week came in at 1,089,000, among which those working part time for economic reasons reached 118,000.

The economically inactive population, or the people aged over 15 minus the economically active population, expanded 92,000 on- year to 15,805,000 in April amid growth people who did not work due to housework and old age.

The number of people who prepare for job-searching contracted 52,000 on-year to 566,000 in April, and the number of people too discouraged to continue their search for work decreased 46,000 to 166,000 over the same period.

Discouraged workers are those who want to work and are available to do so, but they failed to get jobs due to tough labor market conditions. They are those who looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.

The so-called 'take-a-rest' item, or those who replied that they took a rest during the job survey, reached 1,383,000 as of end-April, down 4.1 percent from a year earlier. The item is important as it can include those who are unemployed and are too discouraged to search for work for a long time.