Another statistical snack (?)… Resume’tax jobs’ and join employment insurance’sugly’

Last month, the number of employment insurance subscribers, which was the lowest in 17 years in January of this year, rebounded as the fiscal job program, which invested in blood tax, began to expand again. This is because the government started to supply jobs directly to the health welfare and public administration in Buryaburya to escape the employment shock. Some point out that the distortion of employment statistics is intensifying as the proportion of public jobs that are expected in fiscal expenditure is increasing.

The manufacturing industry, the backbone of our industry, ended its downtrend in 16 months, and the number of subscribers increased for two consecutive months, drawing attention to the future trend. Unemployment benefits paid by the Employment Insurance Fund again exceeded 1 trillion won. It has surpassed 1 trillion won in five months since last September.

According to the’February Labor Market Trends Based on Employment Administration Statistics’ released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 15th, the number of employment insurance subscribers last month was 13,991,000. It increased by 191,000 (1.4%) from the same period last year. The monthly increase in employment insurance subscribers rebounded after a month, with a slight improvement from January of this year (169,000), which was the lowest since February 2004 (138,000). The increase in employment insurance subscribers rose to 365,000 in October last year and 394,000 in November, then plummeted to 239,000 in December and 169,000 in January this year. The increase in subscribers has slowed significantly, mainly in the face-to-face service industry due to the reinforcement of social distancing following the third spread of Corona 19. It is also getting late.

By industry, the number of lodging and food businesses hit by Corona 19 decreased by 59,000. After last December (-34,000 people) and January this year (-54,000 people), the decline has increased even more. Business services including travel (-15,000 people) and transportation (-12,000 people) also declined. Instead, due to the expansion of the online and non-face-to-face industries, information, communication, and publishing (39,000 people) including software development, and wholesale and retail businesses (12,000 people) including non-store retail business increased.

The total number of employment insurance subscribers in the service industry was 9.544,000, an increase of 147,000 (1.6%) from last year. There was a significant increase in subscribers in the job business sectors of government and local governments, such as health and welfare (90,000 people) and public administration (32,000 people). Last month, when the total number of employed people decreased by 982,000 from a year ago and the number of unemployed surpassed 1.5 million, the government issued a prescription to create ‘900,000 plus alpha (+α)’ direct jobs in cooperation with local governments in the first quarter. However, it is pointed out that many of the increased jobs have a strong character of short-term part-time jobs created by taxing, which brings an’optical effect’ to employment statistics.

The power of the people is a situation in which the government insists on reducing the total amount of 2.1 trillion won, saying that it is a trick budget for not only wasting taxes, but also for statistical analysis in relation to this year’s first additional budget (additional) proposed by the government. “The government said that 275,000 additional jobs were reflected in the supplementary budget, but most of the businesses are simple jobs with no job-linked conditions, or businesses that have already announced jobs.” It was pointed out that it was an extra cash dispensation that was improvised for election purposes.”

These statistics are encouraging as the number of employment insurance subscribers increased by 22,000 (0.6%) in the manufacturing industry, which is the basis of our industry and is classified as a relatively decent job. The number of employment insurance subscribers in the manufacturing industry continued to decline for 16 consecutive months from September 2019, before the Corona 19 incident, to the end of last year, and then increased by 5,000 (0.1%) in January this year, and the increase last month increased. By industry, the number of subscribers increased by 9,000 last month thanks to the increase in exports of semiconductors and home appliances in the electronics and telecommunications industries, which are major industries. Grocery (71,000 people) and machinery (43,000 people) also increased significantly.

On the other hand, automobiles (-4,000 people), chemical products (-82,000 people), and primary metals (-21,000 people) continued to decline. In line with the government’s shipping reconstruction goal, large-scale orders for ultra-large container ships continued, and other transportation equipment (10,000 people) such as shipbuilding, which had increased subscribers, continued to decline since June last year. The decline was slightly less than that of the previous year (-102,000 people), but the recession of small and medium-sized shipbuilders and the restructuring of large shipbuilders took hold. Automobiles have also continued to decline since August of last year. However, the decline is slowing due to the launch of new cars such as sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and the increase in exports of eco-friendly cars.

The amount of unemployment benefits paid to unemployed people who searched for a job last month was KRW 1.149 trillion. It increased 32.0% (144.8 billion won) from the same period last year. It has been five months since September last year (1,166.3 billion won) that the amount of unemployment benefits has exceeded 1 trillion won. Unemployment benefits have continued to rise above 900 billion won since April last year, when the employment shock intensified due to the Corona 19 incident.

699,000 people received unemployment benefits. The manufacturing industry (17,000 people), construction industry (16,000 people), wholesale and retail (12,000 people), business services (12,000 people), and health and welfare (10,000 people) applied mainly.