Incheon City Aiming for 'No.1 Youth Happiness'... Continued Support for Job-Seeking Expenses and Lump-Sum Savings

Expansion of Small Business Youth Dream Point Support Eligibility to Age 39
Ranked No.1 in Consecutive Youth Employment Rate Among Metropolitan Cities Since Q4 2017

Incheon City Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City is expanding various support measures to help young people find employment and to enable them to work with satisfaction for a long time at local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

First, the city plans to expand the "Community-Led Youth Job Project," which provides incentives to companies hiring young workers and to the youth themselves, to 22 projects this year, supporting 750 jobs.

In particular, to prepare for the changing employment environment due to COVID-19, seven new projects have been launched, including smart innovative companies, intellectual property (IP)-based digital innovation, and MICE company youth internships, providing young people with professional job training and work experience.

The city will also increase the number of new beneficiaries of the "Dream For Youth Account," which allows participants to save a lump sum of 10 million KRW by combining their own savings with city support funds, from 450 last year to 600 this year. Recruitment announcements are expected next month.

The target beneficiaries are young people aged 39 or younger with an annual salary of 28 million KRW or less who have been employed at SMEs in Incheon for more than two years. If they save 100,000 KRW monthly for three years, they will receive a principal of 3.6 million KRW plus 6.4 million KRW in city support funds, totaling 10 million KRW.

The "Dream Points" support, provided to workers aged 18 to 34 employed at SMEs in Incheon, will also be expanded to those up to 39 years old. Points worth 300,000 KRW will be given via the Incheon e-eum Card, with a maximum of 1.2 million KRW per person, and the support scale this year is 1,000 people.

The "Dream Check Card" project, which supports job-seeking expenses for economically struggling youth, provides 500,000 KRW monthly for six months, totaling 3 million KRW, which can be used for direct and indirect costs related to job searching.

This year, the city plans to select and support 300 young people in the employment blind spots who do not benefit from the newly implemented "National Employment Support System" by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, with recruitment announcements expected between April and May.

The support for rental fees for youth interview suits will also be expanded from ages 18?34 to 39 years old.

Each person can use this support up to three times a year, with 50,000 KRW rental fees provided per use. The interview suit rental support project, which started in February 2018, has been popular among job-seeking youth, with 5,300 users up to last year.

Additionally, the city supports labor environment improvement projects such as employee lounges and restrooms for companies excelling in youth employment. Over the past three years, 142 companies have established employee welfare facilities, and this year, 1.1 billion KRW will be invested to continue these efforts.

The youth population in Incheon (ages 19 to 39) accounts for 28.5% (839,258 people) of the total population.

In the third quarter of last year, Incheon’s youth employment rate was 46.9%, ranking first nationwide, and it has held the top spot among special and metropolitan cities for 12 consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of 2017.

An Incheon city official stated, "According to the Basic Youth Policy Plan (2020?2024), we aim to make Incheon the 'No.1 City for Youth Happiness' by diversifying support projects to improve the quality of life for young people."

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