South Korea shed 40,000 jobs in May compared to a year earlier, the first drop in 17 months, according to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Officials attributed the decline primarily to supply chain disruptions caused by the prolonged Middle East war, which hit the manufacturing sector hardest — down 140,000 jobs year-on-year, its steepest fall since 2019. The unemployment rate edged up to 2.9 percent, and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol pledged that the government would take proactive steps to cushion the impact of ongoing global economic uncertainties on South Korea's labour market.