Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Minister of Strategy and Finance are entering the 7th Innovation Growth Big 3 Promotion Meeting held at the Seoul Government Complex on the 1st. News 1
“In March, the number of employed is expected to recover to last March or more.” (Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Minister of Strategy and Finance on the 31st of last month)
The government interprets the recently released employment index as “beginning to show a clear trend of improvement” (President Moon Jae-in on the 22nd). In terms of future indicators, “the blink of hope is on” (Deputy Prime Minister Hong), showing confidence.
In the background of confidence, there are various economic indicators showing recent improvement trends. In February this year, the overall industrial production index rose 2.1% compared to the previous month, recording the highest level since statistics were prepared. It is predicted that the real economy and psychological indicators are showing strong performance, and the following employment indicators will also improve.
The job market is cold, is the March indicator really getting better?
As expected by Deputy Prime Minister Hong, the number of employed in March is likely to improve compared to the situation in February. However, this statistic has an optical illusion.
Decrease in employed for 12 consecutive months. Graphic = Reporter Kim Young-ok [email protected]
March last year was the month when the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) began in earnest on the job market. Compared to the same month of the previous year, the number of employed decreased by 195,000, turning to negative (-). Since then, the number of monthly employed has decreased for 12 consecutive months. Because of this base effect, the employment index for March this year compared to last March may appear to be better. The National Statistical Office will disclose the employment trends for March on the 14th.
Who is getting a job?
In addition, the Moon Jae-in administration is directly working on improving the employment index. Earlier, the government pledged to create 1042,000 direct jobs within this year. Already 787,000 (as of the end of February) have become employed through the government’s direct job program. The increase in jobs in industries such as health and social welfare services, public administration and the age of 60 and older in February was the impact of the government’s direct job programs.
Last month, a citizen is looking at a job board at the Hope Job Center in Seongdong-gu Office in Seoul. News 1
This additional budget (additional budget) also includes a project to create 255,000 jobs for women, youth, and middle-aged people. Over this, the opposition party criticized it, saying, “It is a short-term job for a statistical snack.” Eventually, the opposition party led to a reduction in jobs for separate disposal of recycled products, which are less urgent, and reduced the related budget from 2.1 trillion won to 1.8 trillion won.
Contrary to the government’s optimism, the job market atmosphere felt by job seekers is bleak. As a result of a survey by the Korea Economic Research Institute under the National Federation of Entrepreneurs, 63.6% of the top 500 companies in terms of sales this year answered that they did not hire or plan to hire in the first half of this year. It is not irrelevant to the current situation in which jobs for young people are decreasing and only jobs for the elderly are increasing.
In February, the number of self-employed persons with employees decreased by 156,000 (-10.7%) and the number of self-employed persons without employees increased by 45,000 (1.1%). It means that self-employed people are also reducing their existing jobs and giving up creating new ones.
Experts point out that the government should focus on recovering pre-corona growth levels instead of proclaiming that’employment has improved from last year’. So-young Kim, a professor of economics at Seoul National University, said, “It is necessary to inform the truth of the difficult situation rather than expressing it as’improving employment’ by looking at the figures raised to temporary direct jobs. “It is difficult to say that the job market has recovered because it is a number that comes from the total number of jobs in Korea.”
Sejong = Reporter Seongbin Lim [email protected]
