The ratio of South Korea's unredeemed student loans rose to the highest in 11 years last year amid the country's unstable job market, data showed Saturday. According to the data from the National Tax Service, 66.1 billion won (US$47.8 million) in student loans that should be repaid after borrowers' employment was not paid back at the end of last year, taking up 16.4 percent of the total of such loans tallied at 404 billion won. The ratio marked the highest since the 17.8 percent recorded in 2012. The amount of non-repaid student loans increased nearly 20 percent last year from a year earlier, while such loans that should be redeemed rose 13 percent over the cited period. Last year's increase was attributed to the country's job instability among youths, which made borrowers less willing to pay back debt due to jitters over their future. South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, remains dogged by high youth unemployment. The jobless rate for people aged 15-29 fell by 131,000 last month, with the employm ent rate for the age group falling by 0.3 percentage point to 45.9 percent, the first decline in six months. Source: Yonhap News Agency