“As public officials are increased by holding on to pledges… only increasing regulations on corporate imprisonment”

◆ 1.1 million civil servants ◆

The current government’s public sector jobs increased unprecedentedly due to the expansion of hiring public servants, continuing the elderly job business, and becoming regular workers for non-regular workers. It can not be blamed for the increase in jobs, but amid the Corona 19 crisis, the productive jobs of companies are gradually shrinking due to anti-business policies of the politicians, and in contrast to the cooling off of entrepreneurship fever due to the increase of the minimum wage and the expansion of the 52-hour work week, it is raising concerns. In the era of full-scale population decline, administrative demand is declining, and many point out that increasing the number of public servants is a betrayal of interest. That means that only the burden that future generations have to bear has increased.

On the 20th, according to the statistics of public sector jobs in 2019 by the National Statistical Office on the 20th, the number of jobs by age increased by 34,000 people under the age of 29 and 23,000 people in their 30s, indicating that youth employment has increased. Employment increased by 14,000 people in their 40s, 43,000 people in their 50s, and 37,000 people in their 60s. Jobs in the public sector are due to the expansion of new recruitment of public officials, direct employment of external services such as cleaning and building management, and the expansion of the elderly job business. In particular, out of the total 151,000 jobs that have increased from the previous year, 80,000 or more jobs accounted for more than half. On the other hand, last year’s employment trend released by the National Statistical Office shows the private sector employment performance at the level of’employment disaster’. Jobs in all age groups excluding those in their 60s or older, such as 20s (-146,000), 30s (-165,000), 40s (-158,000), 50s (-88,000) It fell sharply. As the number of decent jobs declined, employment difficulties for youth intensified, and jobs in their 30s and 40s, which are the back of the economy, were also shocked.

Experts pointed out that the problem is that the government is focusing on achieving the presidential pledge without worrying about mitigating and absorbing the impact of jobs in the private sector in the public sector. Professor Kim Byeong-min of the Department of Public Administration at Kyung Hee University said, “In the worst employment crisis since the IMF last year, not only those in their 20s and 30s but also high school graduates had bottomed out,” he said. “There was no concern about what the public sector should do to improve youth employment.” .

Many point out that even by international standards, the size of Korean public servants is excessive. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) evaluates government jobs by combining central and local government officials and affiliated public institutions. In Japan, which has more than twice the population of Korea, the number of government jobs in 2017 was 3978,000, compared to the total population. 3.15%. On the other hand, Korea has 2.22 million (as of 2019), which is 4.28% of the total population. This figure excludes the number of public companies. Looking at the statistics on the proportion of public servant jobs to total employed by the OECD, Japan was 5.89% as of 2017, while Korea was 8.1% (as of 2019).

It is pointed out as a problem that it is only focusing on recruitment expansion without considering the demands of state administration and social change in the mid- to long-term. In the’Government Function and Manpower Outlook Considering Mid-Term Administrative Demand’ announced last year by the Korea Institute of Public Administration, the government’s mid-term administrative demand and manpower demand forecast by function are presented. As a result, the demand for administrative manpower in the fields of general administration (-16.6%), economic industry (-9.5%), and education culture (8.1%) will significantly decrease, and the demand for social welfare (29.1%) and national safety (13.2%) will increase. It was expected.

The report said, “Considering that administrative demand is expected to decrease in three of the five areas, it is necessary to carefully review the public officials assigned to each function.” It is necessary to request collaboration rather than adding a new one.” Yang Jae-jin, a professor at Yonsei University’s Department of Public Administration, said, “It is judged that the government has the goal of creating public jobs, neglects manpower management that meets administrative needs, and increases the number of people according to the achievement of the pledge.” “It’s a negative in operational efficiency.”

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