The number of employees in South Korea's manufacturing sector in the last three months dropped at the fastest pace in 11 quarters amid a protracted economic slowdown, government data showed Sunday.

A monthly average of 4.47 million people were hired by the manufacturing industry in the July-September period, down 58,000 from the same period last year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

It is the largest on-year decrease since the fourth quarter of 2020, when the number of monthly employments fell 107,000 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of manufacturing workers, hit hard by the yearslong pandemic, had made a rebound in the fourth quarter of 2021 and remained in positive territory for five straight quarters.

But in the first quarter of 2023, the manufacturing employment fell by 37,000 and by 49,000 in the following quarter in the midst of waning global demand. (Yonhap)