The goal is 240,000 jobs... Job creation only 20% 'Haphazard Supplementary Budget'

Achievement of only 50,000 out of the 240,000 target in the first phase
Zero support for child safety guardians and agricultural season workforce
Underperforming projects included again in the second supplementary budget
Job policies focused mainly on wage payments
Low budget execution and new hiring rates causing a repeated 'vicious cycle'

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, attended the plenary session of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held at the National Assembly on the 14th, giving a proposal explanation on the second supplementary budget. / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that the number of public jobs created through the supplementary budget falls far short of the target. The government announced in the first supplementary budget in March that it would create about 240,000 jobs, but after three months, the actual number of jobs created did not even reach 50,000. The government explains that it is impossible to achieve the job target in a short period, but some projects were also included in the second supplementary budget, raising concerns that structural problems are being ignored.

According to data received on the 16th from 14 government ministries including the Ministry of Employment and Labor by Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the People Power Party, the achievement rate of the first supplementary budget job projects passed by the National Assembly in March was only 20.2% as of the end of last month. Analyzing 50 projects where the number of hires could be measured, the target number of hires was 240,452, but the actual number created was only 48,581.

The 'Child Safety Keeper' project, a direct elderly employment project by the National Police Agency, has not hired a single person so far. Including this, six projects had an achievement rate below 10%, accounting for 12% of the total. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Rural Employment Support project is a program that supports the dispatch of workers urgently needed during the busy farming season from April to June, but the number of workers actually dispatched during this period was zero.

Long-term job projects that do not align with the purpose of the supplementary budget also showed poor performance. The Ministry of Science and ICT’s Intelligent Information Industry Infrastructure Development project aims to create 5,384 jobs with an investment of 78 billion KRW, but the project review is still ongoing.

On the other hand, some job projects exceeded their targets. These include the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Agricultural Energy Efficiency Improvement project (target 430, hired 583, achievement rate 135.6%), Farmland Use Management Support project (386 target, 487 hired, 126.2%), and the Korea Forest Service’s Forest Management project (576 target, 641 hired, 111.3%). Like the underperforming projects, these also face criticism for inadequate economic analysis.

Nevertheless, the government included projects with poor first-round performance in the second supplementary budget as well. Representative examples are the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s Youth Job Creation Support and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Sports Activity Support. The relevant ministries explained, "Since these are wage support projects, it takes at least three months from the announcement of support, screening of applicants, to actual work of more than a month before the budget is actually executed."

However, considering the preparation period, there are concerns about whether the budget can be executed as planned this year. The National Assembly Budget Office pointed out, "The National Assembly needs to review whether projects newly created in the second supplementary budget with an expected support period of 4 to 6 months can be executed within this year, and for some projects budgeted on the assumption of carryover, only the budget executable this year should be reviewed and allocated."

Experts analyzed that if supplementary budgets are repeatedly injected into wage payment-focused job policies, a vicious cycle of 'low budget execution + new job creation below target' may repeat. Professor Park Ki-baek of the University of Seoul pointed out, "If the progress rate of supplementary budget projects that need to be urgently implemented nationally is not high, government ministries cannot avoid suspicion and criticism that they have 'padded' their long-standing projects into the supplementary budget."

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