Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
Number of manufacturing jobs keep falling
By Lee Kyung-min
By Lee Kyung-min
Korea's overall employment data improved in October but the number of quality jobs for breadwinners, mostly those in their 30s and 40s in the manufacturing sector, decreased sharply, indicating that the government's efforts to create part-time jobs for older workers through tax spending have distorted the job market.
Statistics Korea data showed over 27 million people were employed in October, up 419,000 from the year before. The country's unemployment rate also stood at 3 percent, hitting a six-year low on a year-on-year basis. Its employment rate of those aged between 15 and 64 stood at 67.3 percent, the highest October figure since the agency began compiling data in 1989.
The agency said the economy added over 300,000 jobs per month for three months in a row from August, adding the job market is showing clear signs of recovery.
However, a closer look into the figure tells a vastly different story, according to economists.
“Of the added 419,000 jobs, most of them are held by those aged over 60 and the quality of the jobs are indisputably awful. You cannot even call them jobs, it's a couple of hours of time-killing activities at best,” Sung Tae-yoon, an economist at Yonsei University, said.
The critical comment follows the subset of statistics agency data which showed 146,000 people in their 40s lost jobs in October.
The loss is offset by 417,000 jobs added for people over 60 in the same month.
Specifically, 159,000 jobs were added for people aged between 60 and 64, and 258,000 for those aged 65 and older.
By sector, manufacturing ― largely considered a high-quality job producer ― lost 81,000 jobs in October, down 1.8 percent from the year before.
While this month's figure is a slight improvement from a month earlier when the sector lost 111,000 jobs in September, it still is far from showing signs of recovery.
Wholesale and retail ― another key producer of the country's middle class jobs ― shed 67,000 jobs while construction lost 51,000 jobs in October.
Sectors that created the most jobs are healthcare and social services (151,000) followed by art, sports and leisure (96,000), and science and ICT (86,000).
By hours worked, those who worked over 36 hours per week dropped 188,000 to 2.21 million in October, while those who worked under 36 hours soared 599,000 to 5.01 million.
The figures indicate that decently paying quality jobs were cut, and the void was filled by short-hour, low-quality jobs held by senior citizens, Yun Chang-hyun, an economist at the University of Seoul said.
“Not working 36 hours per week is hardly considered a quality job. The government policymakers should see though figures presented in terms of single-digit year-on-year percentage point differences and understand the pain and hardship felt by those who lost jobs and their family members,” he said.
Yun predicts that the situation for the local job market will continue to stay in bad shape.
“Those who lost jobs are hit by the economic downturn, particularly hard by a rapid increase in the minimum wage among other failed economic policies. The government should promptly revise the path of policy to minimize financial difficulties of the lower end of economic scale,” he added.