Minister of Employment: "Employment Improvement Continues After April... Supporting Creation of '1.018 Million + α' Youth Jobs"

Meeting of the 13th Employment Crisis Response Team Held on the 14th
"Policy Focus on Employment-Vulnerable Groups Such as Youth and Women"

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor speaking at the 13th Employment Crisis Response Team Meeting of the Central Emergency Economic Countermeasures Headquarters held on the 14th at the main conference room of the Economic, Social and Labor Council in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Lee Jae-gap, Minister of Employment and Labor, stated on the 14th, immediately after Statistics Korea's announcement of the March employment trends, "The employment improvement trend is expected to continue beyond next month," and added, "We will invest 5.8 trillion won to support the creation of youth jobs on the scale of '1,018,000+α'."

Minister Lee made these remarks during the 13th Employment Crisis Response Team meeting held from 8:30 a.m. at the Economic, Social and Labor Council's main conference room in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The agenda included reviewing recent employment trends and response status, departmental implementation plans for youth employment activation measures, checking the progress of women's employment crisis recovery measures, and discussing future plans.

According to Statistics Korea's 'March Employment Trends' released at 8 a.m. that day, the number of employed persons last month was 28,138,000, an increase of 349,000 compared to March of the previous year. This marks a turnaround to growth after 13 months, widely attributed to the base effect from the COVID-19 shock in March of the previous year.

Minister Lee highlighted the significance of the employment rate for those aged 15 and over rising by 0.3 percentage points to 59.8% compared to the same month last year, a decrease of 54,000 in the economically inactive population during the same period, a reduction in the decline rate of employment in face-to-face service sectors such as accommodation, food service, and retail (-1.3%), and continued improvement in employment indicators for vulnerable groups including temporary and daily workers, youth, women, and self-employed individuals.

He said, "Considering recent economic conditions and industrial activities, the employment improvement trend is expected to continue beyond next month." He cited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revising South Korea's economic growth rate upward from 3.1% to 3.6%, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raising it from 2.8% to 3.3% as supporting evidence.

However, he noted that if social distancing measures are strengthened due to the spread of COVID-19, jobs in face-to-face service industries could sharply decline. This statement reflects concerns over the '4th wave' as new COVID-19 cases reached 542 the previous day. Minister Lee added, "Given the lagging nature of employment relative to the economy, if economic recovery is delayed, the labor market recovery could also slow down significantly."

He also pledged to steadily implement the youth and women's employment measures prepared last month, emphasizing policies focused on employment retention support funded by taxes and direct job provision. Policy efforts will also concentrate on supporting vulnerable groups and creating jobs in the private sector.

Minister Lee said, "The government will invest 5.8 trillion won to swiftly implement the youth employment measures announced last month, supporting the creation of youth jobs on the scale of '1,018,000+α'." He mentioned plans to expedite newly established projects through supplementary budgets, including creating 129,000 jobs in the private and public sectors and supporting 72,000 youth job seekers.

He continued, "We will focus our efforts on the prompt execution of supplementary budget projects such as the Saeil Women Intern program, public job creation in the service sector, to maintain employment, create jobs, and improve working conditions for 1.34 million women." He also stated, "Tasks such as expanding social service centers related to care workers and enacting laws to improve employment conditions for domestic workers will be carried out without delay."

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