The 'Three Major Youth Projects' with Trillions of Won Annual Budget Will Continue Next Year

Job Committee Holds 16th Meeting to Report on Youth Employment Project Progress
Youth Additional Employment Incentive Budget 1.4 Trillion Won... 70% Executed as of Last Month
Youth Tomorrow Savings Deduction Operated Only for 2-Year Plan... Government Subsidy Reduced by 4 Million Won
Expansion of Public and Private Digital Jobs... "Monitoring Key Project Implementation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government has decided to continue promoting cash-based projects worth trillions of won next year, including the Youth Additional Employment Incentive, to create jobs for young people and overcome the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

The Presidential Committee on Jobs held its 16th meeting on the morning of the 22nd at the Korea Press Center. The meeting focused on preparing for the employment crisis in the COVID-19 era and actively promoting the Korean New Deal policy.

The Jobs Committee announced that to revive youth employment conditions affected by COVID-19, it will promote three major youth projects next year: the National Employment Support System, the Youth Additional Employment Incentive, and the Youth Tomorrow Savings Deduction.

First, through the newly established National Employment Support System next year, 100,000 young people will receive job-seeking promotion allowances (500,000 KRW per month, up to 6 months). This will be integrated with the existing Youth Job-Seeking Activity Support Fund, which, as of the end of last month, supported 67,742 people (67.7%) out of the target 100,000. The budget execution rate was 46%, with 131 billion KRW spent.

The Youth Additional Employment Incentive is a project that supports small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies by providing up to 9 million KRW per person annually for up to three years when they hire young people as regular employees. The Jobs Committee stated, "Considering the high demand on the ground and the impact on new youth employment, support will be maintained in the current manner until next year."

The government secured a total of 1.427 trillion KRW for the Youth Additional Employment Incentive project this year by adding 435.1 billion KRW in the first supplementary budget to the original budget of 991.8 billion KRW. As of the end of last month, 203,000 people were supported, and 999.1 billion KRW (70.1%) of the budget was executed.

On the 14th, candidates lined up to enter the written exam for the 2020 first half Korea Railroad new employee recruitment held at a university in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

To encourage long-term employment among youth, the Youth Tomorrow Savings Deduction, which was operated in two- and three-year types, will be integrated into a two-year type next year. The maturity amount will be reduced from 16 million KRW to 12 million KRW, with a 4 million KRW reduction in government subsidies.

As of the end of last month, the Youth Tomorrow Savings Deduction had newly enrolled 84,204 young people, achieving 63.8% of the target. So far, 51.9% (664.7 billion KRW) of the total budget of 1.282 trillion KRW has been executed.

The Jobs Committee forecasted that youth employment would shrink in the second half of this year, especially in manufacturing and domestic service sectors, due to the impact of COVID-19. However, it analyzed that the normalization of new hires in the public sector would partially ease employment difficulties.

In the long term, it is expected that structural changes toward a digital and non-face-to-face society will worsen job conditions or change work culture to avoid face-to-face contact. There were calls to strengthen sector-specific support measures so that careers are not interrupted and young people can remain in the labor market.

Accordingly, the government plans to create 115,000 non-face-to-face and digital government jobs in the public sector in the second half of this year through the third supplementary budget, along with 60,000 youth digital jobs (561.1 billion KRW) and 50,000 youth work experience support jobs (235.2 billion KRW) in the private sector.

Youth digital jobs are a project that supports small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies by providing up to 1.8 million KRW per month for six months when they hire young people for IT-utilizable positions. Youth work experience support is a project that supports small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies by providing 800,000 KRW per month for six months when they hire young people for short-term work experience.

A Jobs Committee official said, "We will regularly monitor and check the implementation of major projects such as the three major youth projects," adding, "Various improvement measures will be prepared centered on the National Assembly Research Service to enhance the effectiveness of youth policies in employment, housing, education, and living in the future."

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