'Disability Employment Quota' Businesses Surpass 3% Disability Employment Rate for the First Time

Ministry of Employment Announces Employment Status of Mandatory Disabled Workers in Businesses at End of Last Year
First Time in 30 Years Since System Introduction...Increase in Disabled Workers in Private Companies Too

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The employment rate of people with disabilities in public institutions and private companies subject to mandatory employment of disabled persons exceeded 3% for the first time last year.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 29th, as of the end of last year, the proportion of people with disabilities among all employees at 29,890 businesses subject to mandatory employment of disabled persons was 3.08%, up 0.16 percentage points from 2.92% the previous year. This is the first time since the introduction of the mandatory employment system for disabled persons in 1990 that the employment rate of disabled persons at businesses subject to mandatory employment has exceeded 3%. The mandatory employment system for disabled persons requires the state, local governments, public institutions with 50 or more regular employees, and private companies to employ a certain percentage of disabled persons, and businesses that do not meet the quota must pay a levy.

The mandatory employment rate applied last year was 3.4% for the government, local governments, and public institutions, and 3.1% for private companies. Among government and local government employees, non-civil servant workers had a disabled employment rate of 5.54%, exceeding the mandatory employment rate, but civil servants (3.00%) fell short of the quota. Public institutions (3.52%) met the disabled employment rate, but private companies (2.91%) did not. Among private companies, large business groups (2.38%) had a lower disabled employment rate than businesses with 50 to 100 employees (2.39%).

The total number of disabled persons employed by all businesses subject to mandatory employment was 260,826, an increase of 15,494 (6.3%) from the previous year. The number of disabled workers in private companies also increased by 8,109. Considering that the number of regular employees at these private companies decreased by 3,703 last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Employment and Labor explained that this is a meaningful achievement. Hwang Bo-guk, Director of the Integrated Employment Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "Despite the unfavorable employment situation due to the spread of COVID-19, the employment rate of disabled persons appears to have increased thanks to the active efforts of companies and institutions subject to mandatory employment of disabled persons."

However, it is difficult to evaluate that employment of disabled persons has generally improved. The employment rate of disabled persons last year was 48.0%, down 2.0 percentage points from the previous year. The majority of disabled persons are employed in small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, which are not subject to mandatory employment of disabled persons, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was concentrated on these businesses. This is why efforts to promote employment of disabled persons must continue. Earlier, the government announced the "Plan to Revitalize Employment of Disabled Persons" on the 26th of last month. This plan includes measures to gradually increase the mandatory employment rate of disabled persons in the public sector among other employment policies for disabled persons.

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