Input 2021.01.28 06:00
Yeongnam area population, net outflow of up to 78,000 people since 2002
Pohang, giving 300,000 won for address relocation support
Induce resident registration to find untransferred among workers in Gumi and industrial complexes
POSCO (005490)As of the end of November last year, the population of Pohang City, the home of the city, was 53,000 people, barely exceeding 500,000 people who could receive special treatment as a large city. Pohang’s population peaked at 520,000 in November 2015, and has decreased by about 3,000 every year. So, from the 22nd of the past, officials in Pohang City have been running a campaign to get a love address in Pohang every morning at the plaza in front of the City Hall and Jukdo Market. Starting this year, residents who move into Pohang City will receive 300,000 won for’address transfer support’.
Gumi City, whose population has been declining for many years, has also been conducting the’Pan-Citizens’ Movement to Have Gumi Addresses’ since last year. It is a movement to induce resident registration of Gumi city because there are many non-transferred workers living in dormitories while working in Gumi industrial and industrial complexes. Pohang and Gumi, the representative industrial cities in the Yeongnam region that led the industrialization of Korea, are suffering from fear that their function as cities may be lost due to a decrease in population.
Amid the prolonged stagnation of so-called heavy-duty industries such as shipbuilding, heavy industry, and steel, and the impact of a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), last year’s net outflow of population in the Yeongnam region, where these industrial facilities are concentrated, was found to be the highest ever.
According to the National Statistical Office on the 28th, the net outflow of population migration in the Yeongnam region last year was 78,000 people, the largest in 18 years after 81,000 people in 2002, a record high. The Honam area, which has grown in net outflow since 2015, hit the bottom to 25,000 in 2019 and then reduced the net outflow to 24,000 in 2020. On the other hand, in the central region where Chungcheongnam-do and Sejong City belong, the net inflow of the population is increasing from 11,000 in 2019 to 12,000 in 2020.
It is analyzed that the gap between regions of population inflow and outflow was derived from the process of converting the major industries of the domestic manufacturing industry. The increasing concentration of semiconductors in manufacturing economic activities such as facility investment, production, and exports is leading to the population gap.
In Chungnam, where population inflow is increasing, Cheonan and Asan Samsung Electronics (005930)The semiconductor division and major business sites of Samsung Display are distributed. In the metropolitan area, there is a lot of net inflow to cities and counties in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, where industrial facilities such as Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor production lines are located. Hwaseong, Hanam, Siheung, Uiwang in 2019, and Gwacheon, Hanam, and Siheung in 2020 ranked in the top 10 in net inflows by Sigun-gu. Last year, the total population that flowed into the metropolitan area was 88,000, the highest in 14 years since 2006. Although there were 65,000 net outflows from Seoul, the net inflow to Gyeonggi was 168,000.
On the other hand, business sites such as Gyeongnam (17,000 people net outflow), which is concentrated in Changwon, Geoje, etc., and places such as Gyeongbuk (17,000 people outflow), and Pohang, where the steel industry is concentrated, are hit. The net outflow of Ulsan (a net outflow of 14,000 people) wearing clothes was large.
The problem is that the inflow and outflow of population resulting from such industrial restructuring leads to regional economic imbalance. The net outflow of the population in the Yeongnam region was widespread from the economically active population aged 15 to 64. In this age group, 13,000 in Busan, 15,000 in Daegu, 12,000 in Ulsan, 16,000 in Gyeongbuk, and 18,000 in Gyeongnam were outflowed. Net outflows occurred in the central region from teens and twenties, and from teens to thirties in the Honam region, but net inflows from the rest of the age group offset the net outflow. Yeongnam is the only area where net outflow has occurred in all age groups.
The same trend is also seen in the Regional Employment Survey of Statistics Korea. In the first half of last year, the number of employment in the manufacturing industry across the country decreased by 44,000 compared to the first half of 2019, and 41,000 in the Yeongnam area alone. Most of the total number of reductions occurred at manufacturing sites in the Yeongnam area.
Overall, expectations for a recovery in the manufacturing industry are rising, but the net outflow of population from the Yeongnam region is highly likely to continue this year. This is because export recovery is centered on some items such as semiconductors. Although the export economy is said to have improved compared to 2019, only semiconductors (5.6%) and computers (57.2%) had a positive annual exports last year. Automobiles (-13.1%), auto parts (-17.2%), steel (-14.4%), general machinery (-8.8%), ships (-2.0%), petroleum products (-40.7%), where business sites are concentrated in the Yeongnam region, Most industries, such as petrochemicals (-16.4%), saw their exports declined from 2019.
Experts point out that if the government misunderstands the effect of semiconductor exports as the overall recovery of the manufacturing industry, the economic imbalance resulting from the outflow of population in the Yeongnam region could intensify. “Only IT has improved when looking at exports,” said Joo-won, head of the economic research department at Hyundai Economic Research Institute. “The shipbuilding orders have recently increased, but the overall difficult situation is expected to continue this year. I won’t.”
For this reason, some point out that the government policy should align its direction to support the restructuring of the industrial structure that creates new business through the convergence of existing heavy-duty industries such as automobiles, ships, and heavy industries and IT technology. The government is supporting the transformation of the existing mid-to-high-end industries through the Special Act on Enhancement of Corporate Vitality, but business restructuring at the corporate level is not active yet. Hansung University economics professor Kim Sang-bong said, “Among the traditional manufacturing industries, such as automobiles, there are areas that can be revised while being connected with the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said. “You have to look into sales, technology, manpower, etc. by industry, and look for industries with competence.”