[2021 Economic Policy] Job Budget 30.5 Trillion Won... 1.04 Million Short-term and Public Jobs

Announcement of '2021 Economic Policy Direction'
Creation of 500,000 Jobs in January
Support for 100,000 Youth Work Experience Projects

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The scale of government direct jobs created with taxpayers' money will exceed 1.04 million next year. Among them, 800,000 are jobs for the elderly. The total job budget will increase by 5 trillion won from this year to 30.5 trillion won. The plan is to overcome the unemployment crisis caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic through this.

On the 17th, the government announced the '2021 Economic Policy Direction' containing these details. First, the job budget for next year was confirmed at 30.5 trillion won, an increase of 5 trillion won from this year. Out of the total job budget, 3.2 trillion won will be used to create 1,042,000 direct jobs, an increase of 97,000 from this year.

A government official stated, "We will provide 1.04 million direct jobs to vulnerable groups such as youth, elderly, and disabled who have difficulty finding employment."

Next year, 800,000 elderly jobs will be expanded. This is a one-year advancement of the original 2022 target. In addition to short-time, low-wage jobs such as environmental cleaning, the plan is to create 45,000 high-quality social service-type elderly jobs with more than 60 hours per month.

In particular, the government plans to create more than 500,000 jobs in major direct job projects by January next year. Specifically, 433,000 elderly jobs, 30,000 customized elderly care jobs, and 17,000 region-led youth job projects.

Among the job budget, a 14 trillion won scale 'early execution management target project' including employment retention subsidies and self-support projects will be set and intensively promoted in the first quarter.

The government will also speed up recruitment in the public sector such as government ministries and public enterprises. It plans to finalize the recruitment of 70% of national (general) civil servants by the third quarter of next year and reflect public institution recruitment performance in management evaluations.

Youth job projects, which have seen reduced hiring opportunities due to COVID-19, will also be expanded.

The youth work experience project, conducted as an additional supplementary budget project this year, will increase to a scale of 100,000 next year. In the private sector, 80,000 will be supported including 50,000 youth digital jobs and 26,000 region-led youth job projects. The scale of experiential jobs in public institutions will be expanded to 22,000.

In particular, the public sector will focus on solidifying project operations. This is to dispel the perception that youth are assigned simple repetitive tasks or menial work.

Youth participants will be assigned problem-solving tasks considering the characteristics of each institution, and completion of job training within the institution necessary for task performance will be mandatory. Participants will be connected with dedicated mentors to write problem-solving reports, and a system will be established to issue certificates of completion under the name of the institution head afterward.

These operational achievements will be reflected in public institution management evaluations, and a 'Work Experience Competition' will be held to provide recruitment benefits at public institutions and local public enterprises to awardees.

Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, some travel agencies are planning large-scale layoffs, and a travel agency in Jung-gu, Seoul, has closed its doors. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

The government plans to increase the scale of new hires at public institutions next year compared to this year, and at least 5% will be hired from among participants in the institution's work experience programs. For local public enterprises, a plan to give additional points to excellent graduates during recruitment is being pursued.

In June next year, a 'High School Graduate Employment Activation Plan (tentative)' will be prepared. The government plans to cooperate with economic organizations to provide quality jobs to high school graduate youth.

Meanwhile, the government will actively consider additional employment measures in the first quarter of next year by examining employment conditions by industry.

It will review extending the designation period of eight special employment support industries, including shipbuilding, which ends at the end of this year, and travel, tourism accommodation, and performance industries, which end in March next year.

The designation period of seven employment crisis areas, including Gunsan, Ulsan Dong-gu, Tongyeong, and Geoje, will also be reviewed for extension until next year.

The employment retention subsidy, which partially compensates for leave and suspension allowances, has a budget secured for about 780,000 people. The government will improve the system by resolving blind spots such as dispatch and service companies and relaxing the support requirements for unpaid leave subsidies.

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