South Korea's employment grew over 300,000 for the fourth consecutive month in May, with jobless rate slightly falling, a government report showed Wednesday.

The number of those employed totaled 26,824,000 in May, up 375,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

Manufacturers reduced employees by 25,000 last month, keeping the downward momentum for the 11th straight month, while the number of those self-employed increased by 51,000.

Unemployment rate stood at 3.6 percent in May, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous year. The number of those unemployed reached 1,003,000 in May, but it was down 2,000 from a year ago.

The jobless rate among those aged 15-29 fell 0.4 percentage points over the year to 9.3 percent in May.