Im Seo-jeong "Plan to Include Additional Job Budget in This Year's Supplementary Budget... Reviewing 'Employment Retention' Related Matters"

Im Seo-jeong, Senior Secretary for Jobs at the Blue House, is attending the "27th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting" held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 20th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyeong aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Lim Seo-jeong, Senior Secretary for Jobs at the Blue House, announced plans to additionally include job-related budgets in this year's supplementary budget (추경). She is also considering including parts related to 'employment retention.'

On the morning of the 18th, Lim appeared on KBS Radio's "Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs" and said, "We are currently discussing it and plan to include (the job budget)." Previously, President Moon Jae-in had urged at the Senior Secretary and Aide Meeting to include job budgets in the upcoming 4th disaster relief supplementary budget.

However, Lim explained that the amount is still "under discussion among ministries" and could not disclose specific figures. She said, "There are parts related to small business owners and self-employed individuals, and since it is not easy for youth and women to maintain employment conditions, we will consider including parts related to employment retention," adding, "I am not in a position to disclose the scale or specific details at this time."

Employment indicators in January recorded the worst levels since the IMF financial crisis, but Lim expects the employment situation to improve from January as the low point. Lim said, "There was a temporary gap in jobs invested by the government in the public sector at the end of the year and beginning of the year, which were financially supported jobs," and added, "We expect that the employment situation will not worsen further from the low point in January."

She also presented a plan to create 900,000 direct jobs by the end of next month. Lim said, "Last year, we reflected a budget to create 1.04 million jobs in central government ministries, and we are currently planning to create about 830,000 jobs in the first quarter," adding, "Local governments are also planning about 177,000 jobs annually with their own budgets, and we will request local governments to hire more than 70,000 people in the first quarter and make efforts to encourage this." This means a total of 900,000 jobs will be created in the first quarter combining central and local governments.

Regarding criticism that these jobs are short-term, she said, "There will be many criticisms, but since vulnerable groups are in difficult situations and private sector employment has not recovered, we are first promising short-term jobs," adding, "For quality private sector jobs, we are trying to create good jobs through corporate investment, private projects, and public investment projects worth 110 trillion won."

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