One in Three Small and Medium Enterprises in Gyeongbuk Province Views Parental Leave and Maternity Leave as 'Someone Else's Concern'

Gyeongbuk Province Conducts Survey on 324 Young Workers in SMEs ... 42% Have Job Change Experience

The photo shows Cho Hong-rae, president of the Inno-Biz Association, delivering the opening address at the '2020 Small and Medium Business Technology Innovation Expo Opening Ceremony' held at the Imperial Palace Dube Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on December 10 last year. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] It was found that one out of three small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Gyeongbuk Province does not implement parental leave and maternity leave.

Additionally, more than four out of ten young workers have already experienced job changes, with dissatisfaction over future prospects and wages being the most common reasons for changing jobs.

According to Gyeongbuk Province on the 27th, these findings come from a survey on the status of young workers in SMEs, conducted among 324 young workers aged 19 to 39 working in SMEs within the province. The survey consisted of 77 questions across six categories including job satisfaction, welfare systems, and working environment.

Looking at the main points, regarding job satisfaction, respondents answered that they were satisfied with the working environment (5.48 points) and interpersonal relationships (5.32 points), but were not satisfied with the company's future prospects (4.57 points) and wages (4.51 points).

Regarding welfare benefits and work environment, most SMEs implement annual leave systems and regular health checkups at rates of 88.6% and 80.8%, respectively, but parental leave (34.1%) and maternity leave (29.9%) were not implemented by one out of three SMEs.

Regarding young workers' job changes, 42.2% of young workers reported having experience with job changes. The number of job changes was 1 time for 43%, 2 times for 33.3%, and 3 times for 16.3%. The most common reason for changing jobs was dissatisfaction with wage levels at 27.5%, followed by mismatch of major/aptitude at 13.8%, and dissatisfaction with the working environment at 13.1%.

In particular, among young people aged 20 to 24, job changes due to mismatch of major/aptitude (20%) were more frequent than dissatisfaction with wage levels (13.3%).

The average length of service for young workers was 1 to less than 2 years at 32.1%, 2 to less than 3 years at 22.6%, and 6 months to less than 1 year at 16.8%. There was a significant difference in length of service by educational background: among young workers who worked less than 1 year, 39.3% were high school graduates or below, while among those who worked 10 years or more, 70.4% were junior college graduates, representing the largest proportions respectively.

The most desired policy for improving young workers' rights was improvement of employment environment at 31.2%. This was followed by support for housing stability at 13.6%, and support for living stability and promotion of youth welfare, each at 10.3%.

Regarding cultural and leisure activity policies desired by young people, support for cultural and leisure expenses was the highest at 36.2%, followed by the establishment of various programs at 18.9%, and youth activity spaces at 17.5%.

Si-gyun Park, Youth Policy Officer of Gyeongsangbuk-do, stated, "Both SMEs and young people are facing difficult situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic," and added, "We will promote customized youth policies based on the results of this survey."

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