SEOUL - South Korea may lose around 100,000 jobs this year, the low end of the government's forecast, a finance ministry official said.

If job market conditions in June continued well into the second half, annual job losses could be greatly reduced, said Yoon Jong-won, director of economic policy division at the Finance Ministry.

The finance ministry projected between 100,000 and 150,000 job losses for this year when it revised its economic forecast on June 25.

Yoon's comment came after official data showed the nation added jobs in June for the first time since November 2008, as a result of a state-led job-creation programme.