The South Korean government will spend an additional 4.9 trillion won ($3.54 billion) this year to create 550,000 new jobs, the presidential office said Thursday, amid reports that a record 1 million are now unemployed in the nation, according to Yonhap News Agency Thursday.
The decision was reached at a special presidential council meeting on economic crisis.
The money needed for the plan will come from a supplementary budget that the government is expected to request soon.
Financial officials have said the government will likely ask for nearly 30 trillion won, about 10 percent of the government's 2009 budget of some 284.5 trillion won, to help fight the ongoing economic downturn.