SEOUL, Sept 7 (Reuters) - South Korea will extend much of the public works projects started this year into next year to cushion the sluggish labour market of Asia's fourth-largest economy, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.
The government will allocate funds in next year's budget to offer jobs to an average of 550,000 people, with the bulk of the money spent in the first half, the ministry said in a statement.
"Employment is not expected to improve fast until the first half of next year (despite the economic recovery) because it usually shows a lagging pattern," the ministry said on Monday.
The ministry did not say how much it would spend as the government has yet to finalise its 2010 budget which it will present to parliament later this month or in early October.
South Korea lost an average of 131,000 jobs in the first seven months of this year over a year earlier despite hundreds of thousands of jobs created as by stimulus spending. (Reporting by Cheon Jong-woo; Editing by Yoo Choonsik & Jan Dahinten)