Yoo Kyung-jun: "Domestic Non-Regular Workers at Record High Again This Year... Moon's Job Policy Failure"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Yoo Kyung-joon, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out that the number of irregular workers in South Korea remains at the highest level this year following last year, calling it a "clear failure of the Moon Jae-in administration's employment policy."

On the 27th, Yoo cited the '2020 August Economically Active Population Survey Supplementary Survey by Employment Type' released by Statistics Korea through his Facebook post, making this statement.

According to the survey results announced by Statistics Korea on the same day, as of August this year, the number of irregular workers was 7,426,000, a decrease of 55,000 compared to the previous year. The proportion of irregular workers among all wage workers was 36.3%, showing only a 0.1 percentage point decrease from a year earlier. Last year, the number of irregular workers increased by 867,000 compared to the previous year.

Regarding this, Yoo said, "Whenever statistics showing policy failures such as worsening income distribution and increasing irregular workers come out, this government always makes excuses like 'the survey was wrong' or 'the statistical sample needs to be changed,' continuously manipulating statistics." He criticized, "Listening to Statistics Korea's excuses about the irregular worker statistics issue, there is an absurd scenario where a perfectly normal person, due to another survey, mistakenly answered that they were a regular worker a year ago when they were originally an irregular worker." Statistics Korea had explained the sharp increase of 867,000 irregular workers last year as due to "differences in survey questions compared to past surveys."

Yoo criticized, "When suspicions were continuously raised during last year's and this year's National Assembly audits, Statistics Korea claimed, 'There are non-fixed-term workers who changed their responses to fixed-term workers, and their number reaches 350,000 to 500,000. These are the same individuals with the same occupation and employment status,' but Statistics Korea's response is false." He argued that the sample changes monthly and it is almost impossible for people to confuse non-fixed-term and fixed-term statuses and change their answers about regular or irregular employment.

Yoo emphasized, "The definition of irregular workers is a difficult concept unique to South Korea worldwide, so both Statistics Korea's explanations and parliamentary criticisms are also challenging. Since this is a difficult topic for the general public, the head of Statistics Korea freely gives false answers without knowing the facts himself."

He raised his voice saying, "The truth must be uncovered by the Board of Audit and Inspection. Like the audit results of the Wolseong Unit 1 reactor, the truth must be clearly revealed without yielding to the regime," calling for an audit request regarding Statistics Korea's statistical distortion activities.

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