ED Youth employment project

Deregulation leads to creation of more decent jobs

Hyundai Motor Group has promised to create 46,000 jobs over the next three years. The country's top automotive conglomerate will directly hire 30,000 people while helping its suppliers and subcontractors recruit 16,000 workers. On Monday, Hyundai announced the plan during a partnership agreement event between the group and the Prime Minister's Office in Goyang, northwest of Seoul.

The company became the sixth conglomerate to join the government's youth job and education support program, “Youth Hope ON.” Six conglomerates ― Hyundai, Samsung, LG, SK, POSCO, and KT ― have promised over the past two months to create about 180,000 jobs. For young Koreans suffering from a lack of employment opportunities, it is like welcome rain after a long drought. According to the agreement, the group plans to recruit workers in new business areas, such as robotics, futuristic aviation mobility and hydrogen energy.

The Moon Jae-in administration has positioned itself as a “job-creating government,” but the quality of employment has kept degrading. The number of stable wage earners has dwindled while that of irregular workers has surged. Even President Moon admitted his government's failure in employment policy during the nationally televised town hall meeting Sunday. “I know there has been much criticism that the government has not been good enough in creating good jobs,” Moon said.

The administration's job-creation policy has been focusing on expanding public sector jobs financed by the taxpayer. The government also tried to convert all irregular workers in the public sector into regular employees. Nevertheless, the number of irregular workers has increased by 1.6 million under the current government. All this shows the success of the youth employment project relies on the private sector, as businesses can create quality jobs.

Few can deny the importance of the public sector's employment-creating function, especially amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is private businesses that create and maintain 95 percent of jobs. To expand quality jobs, it is foremost for the government to allow employers to conduct their business in a “comfortable” and predictable manner. It also needs to increase labor market flexibility and eliminate regulations that stand in the way of corporate growth and innovation. The presidential candidates should keep this in mind.