'Tax-Funded' Public Jobs Focus Leads to 421% Surge in New Hires

Total Workforce Declines for Two Consecutive Quarters
First Time Since Ministry of Employment and Labor Survey
Education Service Industry Hiring Down 29.7%

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the number of workers at domestic workplaces has decreased for the first time for two consecutive quarters. A decrease in the number of workers means that the overall job scale itself has shrunk. However, government public job recruitment increased by more than 400% compared to last year, suggesting that tax-funded jobs are dominating the employment market.

According to the "Recent Employment and Separation Trends Based on the Workplace Labor Force Survey" by the Korea Employment Information Service on the 16th, the total number of workers at domestic workplaces was 18.3 million in the second quarter, down 1.6% from the same period last year, and decreased by 0.6% again in the third quarter. Not only did the total number of workers decrease, but this is the first time since the Ministry of Employment and Labor began publishing the Workplace Labor Force Survey in 2011 that there has been a decline for two consecutive quarters.

The decrease in the number of workers was mainly due to the direct hit on face-to-face service industry hiring caused by concerns over the spread of COVID-19. Significant declines were seen in education services (-29.7%), arts, sports, and leisure-related services (-18.9%), and accommodation and food services (-18.3%).

On the other hand, government-led public job recruitment surged by 421.6% in the third quarter. During this period, the number of new hires in the "Public Administration, Defense, and Social Security Administration" sector, where public jobs are concentrated, reached 74,600. Most of these were temporary daily workers (about 72,700), which are short-term jobs. Permanent positions accounted for only 1,900. As of September, the number of workers in this sector was 962,000, an increase of 25.9% (199,000) compared to the same month last year.

Researcher Nam Ye-ji of the Employment Information Service analyzed, "The increase in hiring in Public Administration, Defense, and Social Security Administration is expanding mainly around temporary daily workers," adding, "This is due to the effects of government-led public job projects aimed at preventing economic recession."

Jobs created with taxpayers' money are effectively driving the employment market. In particular, the expansion of job projects led by the government and local governments, such as the COVID-19 Recovery Hope Job Project, had a significant impact. Most of these are supplementary budget projects and are operated temporarily until the end of this year.

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