Government should zoom in on raising employment for youth
Double-digit figures were thought to belong to a bygone era of the Korean economy. In terms of youth unemployment, however, that is not the case. Statistics Korea announced that youth unemployment ― those aged 15 through 29 ― stood at 11.1 percent in February.
People know jobs are hard to come by, especially for the young, and February is the month when new graduates pour into society. The latest unemployment total is still shocking in that it is the highest in some 15 years. The last time the job outlook was so dismal for young people was in July 1999 when their unemployment rate marked 11.5 percent in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
The young Korean generation, which will dictate the country's future, has been referred to by many names. Once they were called the "880,000 won generation" referring to the amount that young workers receive monthly on average, or the "give-up" generation that has forsaken dating, marriage, having children, housing and social relationships. There is also the term "passion pay" to describe the poor treatment of apprentices and interns who are expected to be passionate enough to put up and endure so they can win employment.
With 70 percent of the population going to college, those people having a preference for employment at a large conglomerate, and contract jobs increasing, youth unemployment has surged, according to the government. Thus, to urge a more open-minded attitude toward jobs, Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon met with collegians in Seoul recently where he urged them to look for job opportunities in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He was met with a biting reply by a student who said such advice feels like "violence," when Korean society has no compassion for those who lag behind and where disparity between starting wages at conglomerates and SMEs can be up to 7 million won.
The government has taken measures to tackle youth unemployment in the past but without much success. The worsening economic environment ― consecutive quarters of low growth, growing calls on corporations to raise the minimum hourly wage to boost consumption and the planned extension next year of the retirement to age 60 ― are additional hurdles facing Korea. To make the outlook worse, the nation's top 30 conglomerates have announced they will cut new recruitment by 6.3 percent this year.
The Park Geun-hye administration has pledged to raise employment up to 70 percent by 2017. Critics point out that the employment of the middle-aged and the elderly may fulfill that goal while leaving young workers behind. Hopefully, the government and related sectors can get to work on reforming the labor sector toward adopting a wage-peak system and deregulating so that businesses can make investments to create jobs, and the services sector ― tourism, health care and education ― can offer more jobs than the dwindling Korean manufacturing sector is shedding.
Double-digit figures were thought to belong to a bygone era of the Korean economy. In terms of youth unemployment, however, that is not the case. Statistics Korea announced that youth unemployment ― those aged 15 through 29 ― stood at 11.1 percent in February.
People know jobs are hard to come by, especially for the young, and February is the month when new graduates pour into society. The latest unemployment total is still shocking in that it is the highest in some 15 years. The last time the job outlook was so dismal for young people was in July 1999 when their unemployment rate marked 11.5 percent in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
The young Korean generation, which will dictate the country's future, has been referred to by many names. Once they were called the "880,000 won generation" referring to the amount that young workers receive monthly on average, or the "give-up" generation that has forsaken dating, marriage, having children, housing and social relationships. There is also the term "passion pay" to describe the poor treatment of apprentices and interns who are expected to be passionate enough to put up and endure so they can win employment.
With 70 percent of the population going to college, those people having a preference for employment at a large conglomerate, and contract jobs increasing, youth unemployment has surged, according to the government. Thus, to urge a more open-minded attitude toward jobs, Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon met with collegians in Seoul recently where he urged them to look for job opportunities in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He was met with a biting reply by a student who said such advice feels like "violence," when Korean society has no compassion for those who lag behind and where disparity between starting wages at conglomerates and SMEs can be up to 7 million won.
The government has taken measures to tackle youth unemployment in the past but without much success. The worsening economic environment ― consecutive quarters of low growth, growing calls on corporations to raise the minimum hourly wage to boost consumption and the planned extension next year of the retirement to age 60 ― are additional hurdles facing Korea. To make the outlook worse, the nation's top 30 conglomerates have announced they will cut new recruitment by 6.3 percent this year.
The Park Geun-hye administration has pledged to raise employment up to 70 percent by 2017. Critics point out that the employment of the middle-aged and the elderly may fulfill that goal while leaving young workers behind. Hopefully, the government and related sectors can get to work on reforming the labor sector toward adopting a wage-peak system and deregulating so that businesses can make investments to create jobs, and the services sector ― tourism, health care and education ― can offer more jobs than the dwindling Korean manufacturing sector is shedding.
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