South Korea's jobless rate dropped to 3 percent last month from a year earlier as the number of people employed grew at a fast pace in the service industry, a government report showed Wednesday.

The unemployment rate stood at 3 percent in December, down 0.5 percentage points from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. The rate was slightly up 0.1 percentage point from a month before.

The number of unemployed, who failed to land work despite job- hunting efforts, reached 754,000 last month, down 99,000 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 7.7 percent in December, down 0.3 percentage points from a year before. The rate was up 0.9 percentage points from a month earlier.

The total number of working people grew 441,000 on-year to reach 24.12 million in December, posting the three straight month of jobs being created over 400,000. The employment rate rose 0.5 percentage points on-year to 58.5 percent last month.

By industry, the wholesale and retail sector, which drove up the December job growth, created 109,000 jobs last month, with the construction industry adding 106,000 positions. The health and social welfare service industry employed 90,000 workers, while transportation and science and technology service sectors hired 68, 000 workers and 64,000 workers respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of people employed as regular worker increased by 477,000 in December from a year earlier, but the number for temporary worker and those hired on a daily basis decreased by 13,000 and 122,000 each.