Kim Yong-beom, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, "The employment shock caused by COVID-19 is severe and unique... an incomparable crisis"

Kim Yong-beom, 1st Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance. (File photo) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Kim Yong-beom, First Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, emphasized the seriousness of the situation on the 10th, saying, "I understand the International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement that this (COVID-19) crisis cannot be compared to any other event."

On the same day, Vice Minister Kim shared a New York Times article on his Facebook, stating, "The attached graph clearly shows how terrifying and unique the employment shock caused by the COVID crisis is," and shared the front pages of the New York Times from March 27 and May 9. These pages graphically showed the sharp increase in unemployment claims and the drastic decrease in jobs, respectively.

Vice Minister Kim wrote, "The United States declared a national emergency due to COVID on March 13, and less than two weeks later, an unprecedented situation occurred where weekly unemployment claims soared past 30 million," adding, "Contrary to everyone's expectation that this would last only a week or two, the weekly unemployment claims in the U.S. have continued to record between 3 million and 6 million."

He reiterated concerns about the severity of the COVID-19 impact. Vice Minister Kim said, "According to the U.S. April employment report released last Friday, more than 20 million jobs disappeared in April alone," and added, "In other economic crises, employment was gradually affected over a considerable period, but this time, as soon as the crisis began, the unemployment rate immediately dropped to 14.7% within a month."

He also emphasized the need for a rapid response in employment policy. Vice Minister Kim said, "From now on, it is a race against time. Seventy-five percent of those who lost their jobs in the U.S. this time responded that it was 'temporary,'" and added, "The whole world is anxiously watching how quickly the U.S. economy will normalize."

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