South Korea's jobless rate jumped in February, but job creation increased at the fastest pace in 12 years, indicating that more people came out to look for work amid signs that the economy is recovering, a government report showed Wednesday.

   According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 4.5 percent last month, up from 3.5 percent in January.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also inched up from 3.2 percent to 3.9 percent.

   Job creation quickened sharply. The number of employed people was 24.82 million in February, up 835,000 from a year earlier, the report showed.

   This marked the largest on-year job growth since March 2002 when 842,000 jobs were added to the economy. It is also much more than the 705,000 gain tallied in January. (Yonhap)