Young Job Seekers Tell Minister of Employment, "Frequent Hiring Makes Finding Jobs Difficult"

Youth Job Seekers Meeting on the 8th

Minister of Employment and Labor Ahn Kyung-duk touring the Baemin Riders Southern Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 16th of last month. On that day, Minister Ahn said, "Once the Platform Worker Protection Act is legislated, all platform workers, including full-time delivery drivers and part-time 'Baemin Connectors,' will be institutionally protected." /Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] An Kyung-duk, Minister of Employment and Labor, met with eight job-seeking youths on the 8th and encouraged them to actively utilize government policies such as asset formation, vocational education, and opportunities for work experience. The youths revealed that as companies expand irregular hiring and reduce open recruitment, the already needle-eye narrow job market has become even tighter.

At 2 p.m. that day, Minister An held a meeting titled "Youth Employment and Labor Policies Solved Together with Youth" at the Community House Masil in Jung-gu, Seoul, with Moon Yoo-jin, representative of the Welfare State Youth Network, and eight job-seeking youths. The meeting was held to listen to the opinions of young people on government policies. The meeting proceeded in a format where the youths asked questions and the minister answered.

The youths expressed difficulties caused by the expansion of irregular hiring by companies. They also presented opinions on effective ways to promote youth support projects and the status of support projects concentrated in the metropolitan area. Earlier, on the 28th of last month, Minister An met with human resources and labor executives (CHOs) of 30 major domestic companies and urged them to "actively utilize the open recruitment system."

Minister An introduced several policies such as the National Employment Support System and Digital Core Practical Talent Training (K-Digital Training) to increase youth employment but assessed that they are still insufficient. He said, "Based on the stories you gave today, we will support our youth to gain more work experience and training opportunities and expand necessary incentives so that companies can hire more young people."

He also announced plans to fully launch the "Youth Employment Support Project" from the second half of the year. The project's purpose is for companies to provide vocational training or work experience opportunities as part of their social contribution and to spread a recruitment culture that resonates with young people. He emphasized, "I expect more companies to create various support programs related to youth employment in the future."

Minister An introduced policies for youth including ▲expanding the Youth Tomorrow Filling Deduction support target by 20,000 people (asset formation support) ▲implementing the Youth Talent Development Project for 15,000 people (providing 1.9 million KRW in labor cost support per youth hired) ▲additional support for 20,000 people with the Tomorrow Learning Card and 4,000 people with K-Digital Training.

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