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| People line up in front of an office run by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in Seoul, Monday, to apply for unemployment benefits. The amount of state allowances paid to those unemployed or seeking jobs soared to a record high in March due mainly to the negative economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. /Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
The amount paid out to jobseekers and people who are unemployed broke another record in March, as the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the country's economic and business activities, data showed Monday.
According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government's monthly unemployment and job search allowance payments totaled 898.2 billion won ($737 million) in March, soaring 40.4 percent from 639.7 billion won in the same month last year. It also hit a fresh high, surpassing the previous record of 781.9 billion won in February.
Job search allowance is a type of unemployed benefit paid by the government to the employment insurance fund to support those who lose their jobs. Freelancers and the self-employed are not covered by the state-run unemployment insurance plan. In March, the number of new applicants for the allowance was 156,000, an increase of 24.8 percent from 125,000 a year earlier. Most of them lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the labor ministry said.
"The sharp increase in the allowance last month was due partly to the increasing number of fresh applicants, but most of them can be attributed to the extended payment period," said Seo Myung-seok, a ministry official.
By type of industry of the applicants, 35,000 were from health and welfare such as private hospitals, 19,000 were from the manufacturing sector, 16,000 were from the construction industry and 15,000 were from the private education services sector including private cram schools.
The number of people newly covered by unemployment insurance rose 253,000 or 1.9 percent year-on-year to 13.8 million in March, growing at the slowest pace in 16 years. The gain fell below 300,000 for the first time since March 2018. The number of employment insurance subscribers in the manufacturing sector, which has been declining for seven months, stood at 3.55 million, down 31,000 or 0.9 percent from a year earlier. In the services sector, the number of subscribers stood at 9.36 million, up 27,300 or 3 percent from a year earlier.
Last week during a meeting with economy-related ministers, the finance minister noted the possibility that unemployment could increase among part-time workers and small business owners due to the pandemic. As COVID-19 is dealing a harsh blow to some sectors such as retail, services and wholesale, the number of applicants for the job search allowance and its amount are expected to increase in April and May.
