A job seeker looks at job postings at the Seoul Western Employment Welfare Plus Center in Mapo District, Seoul, March 14. Newsis

The number of young Koreans who were jobless or opted to remain economically inactive surpassed 1.2 million last month amid tough job market conditions, data showed Sunday.

A total of 1.21 million individuals aged 15 to 29 either remained unemployed or economically inactive to prepare for a job or without specific reasons as of end-February, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The figure marked an increase of 70,000 from last year's 1.13 million.

Of the total, those who opted to stay out of work without specific reasons came to 504,000, reaching the highest level since the agency began compiling the relevant data in 2003.

The number of unemployed young people seeking a job came to 269,000 last month, up 2 percent from a year earlier.

Experts point to weak economic growth and domestic demand, as well as companies' preference for experienced workers, as reasons behind the job market difficulties for the younger age brackets.

"The number of young people who failed to land a job has been rising despite the decline in the overall youth population," an agency official said.

"Amid heightened uncertainties in the business circumstances, an increasing number of companies have reduced regular recruiting and preferred experienced employees." (Yonhap)