President Moon: "Regrettable that Employment Insurance Excludes Special Employment and Platform Workers"

President Moon Jae-in Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sunhee] President Moon Jae-in described the recent amendment to include artists under the scope of the Employment Insurance Act as a "meaningful progress" on the 21st, but also stated that "there is still a long way to go. It is regrettable that it has not been expanded to special employment workers and platform workers," the Blue House revealed.

Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for the Blue House, held a briefing at the press center in the afternoon and conveyed that President Moon said, "I ask for cooperation so that employment insurance benefits can be expanded early in the 21st National Assembly."

In his special speech on the 3rd anniversary of his inauguration on the 10th, President Moon emphasized the "drastic expansion of employment insurance coverage" and the "implementation of the National Employment Support System." Among these, the National Employment Support System, which is equivalent to a Korean-style unemployment assistance, had related bills passed at the last plenary session of the 20th National Assembly the day before and is scheduled to be introduced in January next year.

Regarding this, President Moon evaluated it as a "meaningful institutional change in a situation where the employment shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming visible," and instructed to "prepare meticulously so that the newly introduced National Employment Support System can be implemented without gaps."

Additionally, President Moon received a report from Kim Sang-jo, Chief of Policy Office at the Blue House, on the '2020 Q1 Household Trends Survey' announced by Statistics Korea the day before. According to this survey, the gap between low-income groups (bottom 20% income) and high-income groups (top 20% income) widened further, indicating that income polarization has actually deepened. In particular, the earned income of low-income groups, who have a high proportion of temporary and daily workers, decreased after the COVID-19 crisis.

In response, Chief Kim emphasized that the 'transfer income' of low-income groups, such as public pensions and social security benefits, increased rapidly, describing it as an "effect of policy improvement." Spokesperson Kang explained that President Moon regarded the passage of the employment insurance expansion and National Employment Support System-related bills as even more meaningful because of this.

When asked whether earned income excluding government support decreased, a key Blue House official acknowledged, "Yes. The gap between the top 20% and bottom 20% widened," adding, "Efforts to reduce the gap should naturally be made, but separately, there was an effect of policy improvement." He continued, "The government is making every effort to prevent unemployment and is doing its best regarding earned income through jobs."

Meanwhile, Chief Kim described the 'Data 3 Act' passed by the National Assembly as "an important bill supporting the data economy," and said, "It can be a catalyst for the Digital New Deal, which is one pillar of the 'Korean New Deal.'"

President Moon also said, "We should take this as an opportunity to advance smart administration and the data economy," and urged, "Each ministry should recognize the importance of data utilization in their work processes and the government should play a leading role in realizing the data economy."

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