A Bottlenecked 'Job Market' to Rely On... 'Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center'

Small and Medium Business Corporation
Operations Started After 2017 Pilot Project
Annual Increase in Hiring Companies and Job Seekers
1,935 Matches Successful from January to August This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] Jung Suyeon (29), who dreamed of becoming a copywriter since college. She wanted to work in the advertising industry, but the employment barrier was high. Even after graduating from college and working in other industries out of necessity, she did not lose her dream. By chance, a friend recommended the "Large, Medium, and Small Enterprises Win-Win Job Program," which gave her an opportunity. Over three weeks, she attended lectures from experts active in the advertising industry and studied with other program participants while preparing for job interviews. As a result, she was able to join an advertising production company as a copywriter through a job matching program for small and medium enterprises.

The Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center, operated by the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC), plays a significant role as a job matching platform for job creation. It contributes not only to job creation in small and medium enterprises but also to revitalizing the hiring market, which has been sluggish due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to SBC, from January this year to the end of last month, over eight months, the number of job openings and job seekers registered at the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center were 26,198 and 34,548, respectively. This is more than double compared to the same period last year, which recorded 12,867 and 17,138. Although the proportion of hires relative to registrations is low due to the difficult business environment caused by COVID-19, the number of hires increased more than twice from 811 in January-August last year to 1,935 in the same period this year.

SBC has been operating the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center since March 2017. It started as a pilot project in 2017 and began full-scale operations in May 2018. The center has been established within 16 regional headquarters of SBC. Additionally, although 16 branches do not have centers, they support the matching business through full-time job couple managers.

The number of companies and job seekers using the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center continues to increase steadily. The number of hires through matching also shows an upward trend every year. Registrations of job openings through the center increased significantly from 5,821 in 2017 to 21,434 in 2018 and 49,185 in 2019. During the same period, the number of job seekers surged from 1,327 to 14,082 and then to 33,462. The number of hires also rose from 1,048 to 2,657 and then to 3,520. From March 2017 to August this year, the total number of hires reached 9,160.

Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center’s Budget 10 Billion KRW Next Year
Development of Customized Job Matching Programs by Generation

Han Junwook (37), who worked in management support such as HR for 10 years at a large corporation but retired due to childcare, also succeeded in reemployment through the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center. As his children reached 3rd and 4th grade in elementary school, he had some relief from childcare and prepared for reemployment. He chose to reenter a small or medium-sized enterprise rather than a large corporation. After participating in the "On-site Coaching Skilled Workforce Training Program" for a month and learning financial accounting tasks, he joined a small or medium enterprise as a management team leader.

The center supports a job matching business that directly connects job seekers who wish to work with small and medium ventures that have hiring demand. It links youth job seekers to employment through consulting for continuous recruitment and matching with small and medium ventures. The Large, Medium, and Small Enterprises Win-Win Job Program utilizes excellent education and training infrastructure from large corporations to provide related job training to young job seekers and then supports employment linkage to partner small and medium ventures.

Through the On-site Coaching Skilled Workforce Training Program, job seekers for small and medium ventures are trained into skilled workers through one-on-one on-site coaching and practice using experts such as masters, and employment is linked. There is also a youth soldier employment support program that provides job training to enhance employment capabilities during military service and links employment to small and medium ventures after discharge. SBC plans to expand the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center’s budget from about 8.7 billion KRW this year to 10 billion KRW next year.

Kim Hyungsu, head of the SBC Job Division, said, "To revitalize the hiring market, which has been sluggish due to COVID-19, we will regularly hold non-face-to-face (untact) online job fairs and strive to match jobs between small and medium ventures and job seekers." He added, "The Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center will develop customized job matching programs by generation, including youth, middle-aged, and senior workers, to support job creation in small and medium ventures."

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