South Korea's ongoing economic slump has caused the number of temporary and daily workers to fall below 7 million for the first time in over four years, according to a government report Monday.
Yonhap News, quoting the report by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the National Statistical Office (NSO), reported that there were 6.95 million workers whose employment contracts did not exceed one year as of January, the lowest since 6.88 million tallied in August 2004.
Compared to January 2008, there were 267,000 fewer temporary and daily workers as companies took steps to lay off employees amid a sharp decline in domestic consumption, exports and business investment.
Temporary workers are employees holding jobs that last for more than one month but under a year, while daily workers are employed for less than one month.
The two groups make up roughly 30 percent of the 22.86 million individuals employed in the cited month.
The ministry and the NSO warned that more jobs could be shed in the coming months since the economy is forecast to contract by 2 percent annually in 2009.
The total number of temporary and daily workers hit bottom at 7 million last August before climbing back up to 7.27 million in November. The economic slowdown triggered by the worldwide financial crisis, however, caused the total to fall back to 7.12 million by December.
In January, Seoul said that a total of 103,000 jobs were lost in 2008, with experts predicting up to 200,000 jobs may evaporate by the end of this year.
Government sources added that there could be a large number of layoffs in July when companies must decide whether to fire or hold onto contract employees hired in 2007.
Under South Korea's labor law, companies can freely dismiss contract workers who have been employed for less than two years, after which period they automatically receive enhanced employment protection. There are an estimated 970,000 workers whose two-year hiring period comes due in July.
"Seoul is taking all necessary steps to encourage companies not to fire workers and to create jobs, although things may not start to look up until after the second or third quarter," a ministry official was quoted as saying.
