“Lodging and restaurant businesses, wholesale and retail businesses, etc. continue to suffer unemployment and income decline”
“I can’t even worry about the employment situation at the beginning of the year… Take additional measures”
On the 13th, Hong Nam-ki, deputy prime minister of the economy and the Minister of Strategy and Finance, emphasized, “I will put the highest priority of policy in relieving the pain of the underprivileged class, which has been greatly affected by social distancing.”
Deputy Prime Minister Hong told his Facebook employment trends in December last year, saying, “The pain of unemployment and income decline continues in the lodging/restaurant business and wholesale and retail business.”
According to the employment trend for December released by the National Statistical Office, the number of employed persons decreased by 628,000 compared to the same month last year, and the decrease was greatly expanded from November (-273,000). In 2020, 218,000 people fell annually. This is the largest decline in 22 years since the 1998 International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis.
Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, “We held a noksil meeting early in the morning to diagnose the employment situation and discuss the response direction.” “The hearts of all participants, including myself, were very heavy with the employment index, which decreased significantly in 2020.” He said.
“Last year, when the number of employed people increased or decreased, the employment shock continued to increase.” “The third spread in November-December and employment in December was expected to deteriorate to some extent. In consideration of the base effect, the government has prepared various public welfare support plans and employment security plans in advance.”
Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, “First of all, in December of last year, we prepared measures for damage support of KRW 9.3 trillion, and now we are quickly implementing customized damage support measures such as the’Small Business Owner Support Fund’. As the countermeasures are being pursued, the government is actively promoting 1,040,000 direct job projects and 50,000 youth digital job projects to start immediately from January.”
In addition, he said, “The reinforced distancing is still ongoing and the employment situation at the beginning of the year cannot be relieved given the post-economic characteristics of employment. We will also devise employment measures,” he added.
Reporter Choi Byung-wook
Copyright owner © Gyeonggi Daily unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited