“New Year’s wishes? Lotto 1st place” Did you do well this year? [한기자가 간다]

Corona spread this year… The lives of the common people are getting harder
Job market freezes and job seekers’sigh’
The largest lottery sales ever

[아시아경제 한승곤 기자] “I really sincerely hope that I will win.”, “It seems to be more difficult this year. I’m depressed.”

Rather than reducing the spread of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) that spread earlier this year, it has not declined, with more than 1,000 new confirmed cases every day. The sighs of self-employed and small business owners, as well as those in their 20s and 30s who have to work with unemployed people, are still increasing.

The lottery tickets (lotto), which had been purchased for a week, dreaming of a sudden life due to the weakened life, are now changing their character with desperate desire to win.

The people who bought the lotto kept talking about the reason, including liquidating their personal debts. Kim Mo, an office worker in her 30s who met at a lotto store in a downtown area in Seoul, said, “What’s the biggest worry is money, I’ve made a lot of loans (if I win the lottery), so I’ll solve this first.”

Another 40-year-old office worker Park Mo also confessed, “There are too many places to put money in,” and “There are so many places to solve, such as personal retirement problems, parents’ health, and children’s tuition.”

On the other hand, the sighs mixed with despair of job seekers (recruiters) still remain. “The job market may be more difficult next year than this year,” said Choi Mo, a job seeker in his twenties.

◆ The worse the lottery game, the better it sells’recession-type goods’

As citizens complained, the overall economic situation deteriorated due to the Corona 19 incident, and the sales of lottery tickets in the first half of this year recorded the largest ever.

Lottery is known as a kind of’recession-type product’ that sells well as the game gets worse. This is the reason for observation that the sales of lottery tickets have increased due to difficulties in life as the economic recession continues due to the Corona 19 crisis.

According to the Lottery Committee (lottery committee) of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in September, sales of lottery tickets in the first half of this year were KRW 2.62 trillion, up 11.1% from the same period last year. This is the largest amount since 2005 (1.41 trillion won), when the Lottery Commission disclosed its lottery business results as of the first half. The growth rate is the highest since 2012 (17.7%) in the first half of the year.

By lottery product, lottery accounted for the largest portion with 2,3082 trillion won. This was followed by a print-type lottery ticket of 1863 billion won, a combined pension lottery ticket of 85.5 billion won, and an electronic lottery ticket of 40.8 billion won.

◆ Corona in earnest… The frozen job market

Looking at the’Social Trends in Korea 2020′ released by the National Statistical Office on the 11th, 50.3% of the general public answered that’they received the same wages as before Corona 19′ in the’Job and Wage Changes due to Corona 19′ survey in May. Was.

26.7% answered’I didn’t lose my job but my wages decreased’, 14% said’I lost my job’, and 9% said’I didn’t lose my job, but I was on unpaid leave’. If the respondents were not wage workers, they assumed that they were wage workers.

Since February of this year, when Corona 19 took off in earnest, the labor market contracted sharply, reducing the number of employed and the number of inactive populations. The largest drop in employment was women, under 20s, and temporary workers. The number of job-seeking benefits recipients surpassed 600,000 in March. After June, it exceeded 700,000.

In the case of employment maintenance measures (vacation, leave, unpaid leave, leave, etc.) for employers who are inevitable for employment adjustment due to business deterioration, etc., the employment maintenance subsidy, which is a support for preventing unemployment and stabilizing livelihoods for workers, is 7 this year. It was paid to about 390,000 people a month. This is a number that is more than 4,000 people in the same month last year.

It was found that more than 7 out of 10 job seekers who were not confident in finding employment. In August, as a result of a survey of 937 new job seekers on’confidence for employment in the second half of the year’, 71.2% of respondents answered that they are not confident to find a job. The most common reason (multiple responses) of not being able to get a job was because, by far, the number of public announcements after the Corona 19 incident was greatly reduced (65.7%).

People who bought the lotto agreed and wished that the economy would improve next year. Mr. Kim, a 30-year-old office worker who said that he would stop by the lottery store every Saturday and purchase lottery manually and automatically, said, “I think it wasn’t hard for everyone this year with the corona, but I hope next year will be a year where the corona ends and self-employed people laugh a lot.

Another 40-year-old office worker Lee Mo said, “Officers like me are holding on to somehow, but the job seekers seem to be very difficult. If I meet the job seekers, I want to warm up a word.” Another 20-year-old job seeker Park Mo said, “I hope the job market will become more active next year,” and emphasized, “I wish that not only me but also other job seekers could get a job at the company.”

Reporter Han Seung-gon [email protected]