Jeonbuk Province Launches Full-Scale Ultra-Large Employment Stability Proactive Response Package

Ministry of Employment and Labor Partners to Create 10,000 New Jobs Worth 100 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Tae-in] A mega employment stabilization project by Jeonbuk Province and the Ministry of Employment and Labor to overcome the employment crisis caused by the combined shocks of employment from Gunsan and the adverse effects of COVID-19 is set to be fully launched.

Jeonbuk Province (Governor Song Ha-jin) signed a business agreement on the 27th with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Iksan City, Gimje City, and Wanju County to efficiently promote the ‘Employment Stability Preemptive Response Package Support Project,’ which aims to provide 100 billion KRW in support over five years and create 10,000 new jobs.

The signing ceremony held at Jeonbuk Technopark was attended by Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Governor Song Ha-jin, Mayor Jeong Heon-yul of Iksan, Mayor Park Jun-bae of Gimje, County Governor Park Seong-il of Wanju, as well as about 30 officials from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and participating executing agencies. They agreed to strengthen an organic cooperative system to ensure the smooth implementation of the ‘Employment Stability Preemptive Response Package Support Project.’

Before the agreement signing, Governor Song Ha-jin said in his greeting, “Currently, our province is facing a worsening employment situation due to the closure of the Gunsan Hyundai Heavy Industries and Korea GM plants, compounded by the impact of COVID-19, which has further depressed the employment market.” He added, “The selection of this project will be a great help in proactively responding to the current employment crisis, creating new jobs, and overcoming the economic crisis caused by COVID-19,” urging the government and participating institutions for their interest and active support.

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor stated, “The regional employment market has suffered significant damage due to COVID-19, making urgent and drastic employment policies necessary.” He added, “The Employment Stability Preemptive Response Package Support Project aims to fill policy blind spots in regions at risk of employment crises and represents a new paradigm of employment policy linking industry and employment. It is expected to move away from the central government-led top-down job projects and enhance the field relevance and perceptibility of job policies.”

The ‘Employment Stability Preemptive Response Package Project,’ a new project by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2020, is designed to proactively support regions not designated as employment crisis areas but experiencing employment difficulties due to COVID-19 and other factors, as well as regions expecting large-scale restructuring, to mitigate employment shocks.

Recently, Jeonbuk Province reported that due to the impact of COVID-19, the employment rate (ages 15-64) in March fell to 62.9%, down 0.7% compared to the same month last year, and the number of employed persons decreased by 4,000 compared to the previous year.

In particular, the youth employment rate (ages 15-29) dropped to 30.3%, down 1.3% from the same period last year, marking the lowest since the first quarter of 2011. Additionally, the province’s key industry, automobile exports, fell below 1,000 units by February this year, a 61% decrease compared to the same period last year, indicating a worsening situation.

This is due to the crisis faced by partner companies following the closure of the Gunsan Hyundai Heavy Industries plant and the withdrawal of Korea GM’s Gunsan plant since 2017, along with a chain of manufacturing bankruptcies. Although there had been a slight recovery in employment conditions, the adverse effects of COVID-19 have further pushed the region into a recession.

Already, Iksan has seen 113 manufacturing companies go bankrupt in succession, resulting in about 5,500 job losses. The commercial vehicle plant located in Wanju has seen production decrease by about 20,000 units over the past five years, and Gimje is experiencing a faster population decline than Iksan and Gunsan due to job shortages.

To proactively respond to the regional crisis, Jeonbuk Province formed a consortium agreement with Iksan, Gimje, and Wanju and has set a mid- to long-term roadmap through dozens of sector-specific working group meetings and business plan consultations since December last year.

Based on this, they have been concretizing a new package program focused on resolving the limitations of existing job projects by addressing field difficulties, including corporate support, startup support, workforce training, employment environment improvement, and employment service support.

This agreement ceremony was held following the project’s selection as the priority negotiation target for the Employment Stability Preemptive Response Package Support Project in February, after completing four rounds of consultations with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employment Information Service, and its final selection on the 21st of last month.

The confirmed business plan includes ▲ overcoming the crisis of key industries centered on the commercial vehicle cluster, ▲ upgrading the agricultural and food industry as an employment growth industry to create better jobs, ▲ creating new jobs through investment attraction, startup support, and workforce training in new industrial fields, and ▲ establishing an employment stability governance system. It plans to invest 100 billion KRW over the next five years and aims to create 10,000 stable and new jobs, which is expected to be a great support for the local community facing crisis.

To this end, the commercial vehicle industry will diversify its client base and product lines to maintain employment competitiveness. For idle workers in the automobile industry, support will be provided for career transitions to the agricultural and food industry, an employment growth sector. Furthermore, fostering the future new technology automobile industry will create quality youth jobs, serving as a solid foundation for the regional economy, which has been depressed by COVID-19.

Governor Song Ha-jin of Jeonbuk Province emphasized, “For this competition, we mobilized regional capabilities including employment experts, industry experts, and statistics experts, and listened to various opinions through a central-level job policy advisory group and expert consultative body to establish a well-rounded business plan.” He added, “We plan to do our best to create a Jeonbuk where young people do not leave by planning and promoting mid- to long-term job projects led by the region and to overcome regional difficulties caused by COVID-19.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.