Park's employment policies have failed young jobseekers
A sense of hopelessness is sweeping the nation's youth as more young adults are finding it harder than ever to find jobs to start preparing for a stable future.
The Park Geun-hye administration has fallen short in many areas, but one of its most serious failures has to do with reducing youth unemployment. Figures show that the youth jobless rate has continued to increase since Park took office. The government spent almost 2 trillion won last year on projects related to youth employment. It plans to spend even more, but such budgetary focus has not produced visible outcomes.
Before 2013, the youth unemployment rate did not exceed 8 percent. But in 2014, it rose to 9 percent and 9.2 percent in 2015. Last month, it reached its highest in 17 years. The latest Statistics Korea report shows the unemployment rate for people aged 15-29 hit 12.5 percent in February, the highest since 1999. And many who have found jobs are temporary workers. According to an OECD report, the number of NEET (not in education or training) people among university graduates in Korea is the third highest among OECD countries.
These figures attest to a complete failure of the Park administration's youth employment policies. But the government has shown little interest in the crisis after Statistics Korea explained that the reason for the rise last month was the increase in applicants for the nationwide civil service exam in mid-February. The number of applicants for 4,120 government jobs totaled 222,650, up 16.6 percent from 190,987 in 2015.
The government is brushing aside the rise in the jobless rate as a temporary phenomenon. But it needs to perceive properly the reality that there are simply not enough decent jobs in the private sector. This is by no means a temporary problem. Policymakers must come up with a long-term solution to recover the nation's growth potential and expand private sector jobs. For this, the implementation of policies for a bolder industrial restructuring and development of new growth engines is crucial.
It is regrettable that the corporate sector is not forthcoming about hiring for the foreseeable future. According to the Federation of Korean Industries, more than 52.2 percent of the nation's conglomerates had no plans to hire in the first half of the year.
The government is planning to announce a set of job creation measures in late April. It should work closely with the corporate sector to design measures that can actually help young people land stable jobs. It was a good decision for the government to delay the announcement until after the April 13 general election. The unemployed are not interested in populist slogans, but want realistic solutions to advance their livelihoods.
Politicians should also ask themselves what they have done to ease the hardships of young job seekers before asking for votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
A sense of hopelessness is sweeping the nation's youth as more young adults are finding it harder than ever to find jobs to start preparing for a stable future.
The Park Geun-hye administration has fallen short in many areas, but one of its most serious failures has to do with reducing youth unemployment. Figures show that the youth jobless rate has continued to increase since Park took office. The government spent almost 2 trillion won last year on projects related to youth employment. It plans to spend even more, but such budgetary focus has not produced visible outcomes.
Before 2013, the youth unemployment rate did not exceed 8 percent. But in 2014, it rose to 9 percent and 9.2 percent in 2015. Last month, it reached its highest in 17 years. The latest Statistics Korea report shows the unemployment rate for people aged 15-29 hit 12.5 percent in February, the highest since 1999. And many who have found jobs are temporary workers. According to an OECD report, the number of NEET (not in education or training) people among university graduates in Korea is the third highest among OECD countries.
These figures attest to a complete failure of the Park administration's youth employment policies. But the government has shown little interest in the crisis after Statistics Korea explained that the reason for the rise last month was the increase in applicants for the nationwide civil service exam in mid-February. The number of applicants for 4,120 government jobs totaled 222,650, up 16.6 percent from 190,987 in 2015.
The government is brushing aside the rise in the jobless rate as a temporary phenomenon. But it needs to perceive properly the reality that there are simply not enough decent jobs in the private sector. This is by no means a temporary problem. Policymakers must come up with a long-term solution to recover the nation's growth potential and expand private sector jobs. For this, the implementation of policies for a bolder industrial restructuring and development of new growth engines is crucial.
It is regrettable that the corporate sector is not forthcoming about hiring for the foreseeable future. According to the Federation of Korean Industries, more than 52.2 percent of the nation's conglomerates had no plans to hire in the first half of the year.
The government is planning to announce a set of job creation measures in late April. It should work closely with the corporate sector to design measures that can actually help young people land stable jobs. It was a good decision for the government to delay the announcement until after the April 13 general election. The unemployed are not interested in populist slogans, but want realistic solutions to advance their livelihoods.
Politicians should also ask themselves what they have done to ease the hardships of young job seekers before asking for votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
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