810,000 new jobs? Start here...

By Andrew Salmon

Korea’s incoming administration is enjoying its honeymoon: No member of the new government, it seems, can do wrong. Alas, the public will not be moonstruck forever; these dreamy days cannot last. Before long, questions are going to be asked regarding policy objectives and electoral promises.

The most sensational pledge made by then-Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in was his promise to create a whopping 810,000 new jobs in the public sector. The fact that these jobs will be in the public sector is critical: If Moon aimed to create thousands of new positions in the private sector, he would be forced to ask and offer favors to chaebol. That is a very slippery slope. The long history of business-political collusion, and its related corruption and cronyism, stem from just these kinds of quid pro quos.

So what kinds of public sector jobs does Korea need? I asked some local colleagues, and added a few of my own suggestions. Here is what we came up with.

Creche staff: If the Korean professional, productive woman is to be freed from the entanglement of raising children, she needs someone to take on this duty. Traditionally, this was kept in the household, but with the rise of the nuclear family, granny and grandpa no longer necessarily share homes with the second and third generations. The answer is creches – and creche personnel. Lots of them.

Nurses: As anyone who has visited a local hospital knows, much of the daily care of patients ― dressing/undressing, washing, assisting in and out of bed, even changing intravenous drips, and more ― is done by family members who camp out at patients’ bedsides. This practice is problematic for families whose members have professional or childcare responsibilities. It is even more problematic for those patients who don’t have family members available to visit for extended periods. And in certain cases, I suspect this practice is dangerous for patients. More nurses, please.

Emergency room doctors: Ditto above. On the mercifully few occasions I have visited Korean emergency rooms, I have been surprised ― and dismayed ― at the dearth of doctors. By all means, empower interns to carry out the grunt work, but for serious cases, a fully qualified doctor is called for.

Immigration Officials: I ― and I suspect millions of incoming travelers ― am fed up with waiting in line for an hour or more at Incheon just to get my passport stamped. Immigration officials! You know when busy flights are scheduled to arrive, so kindly deploy ― or hire ― more officials to deal with these foreseeable bottlenecks. Thank you!

Department store guides: Granted, this position might appear to fall under the private, not the public sector, but if government seeks to upgrade the tourism sector, it might consider hiring such persons. I, for one, am fed up with getting discombobulated and plain lost in Seoul’s consumer labyrinths. Guides ― equipped with store maps, GPS navigation systems and backup compasses, and perhaps accompanied by friendly St. Bernards with barrels of brandy around their necks ― would be ideal aids.

Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.