Temporary Daily Worker Wages at 40% of Regular Employees... Spread of Low-Wage Jobs Creates 'N-jobbers'

Temporary workers choosing side jobs increased by nearly 20,000 in 2 years
Full-time workers with side jobs decreased by 7,000 compared to last year
Employment insecurity and wage gaps fueling rise of N-jobbers
Experts say "Direct job policies cannot fundamentally solve the issue"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The increase in workers having side jobs is largely influenced by changes in job types and employment insecurity. The presence of side jobs differed not only by age but also by employment status, such as regular versus temporary positions.

Analysis of the November employment trend microdata from Statistics Korea shows that the number of temporary workers with contracts under one year choosing side jobs increased for three consecutive years, from 127,000 in November 2019 to 145,000 this year. In contrast, the number of regular workers, defined as those with employment contracts of one year or more, choosing side jobs decreased from 192,000 last year to 185,000 this year. Since temporary and daily workers have poorer conditions in terms of employment contracts and wages compared to regular workers, it can be interpreted that they opt for side jobs.

Wages for temporary and daily workers do not even reach half of those for regular workers. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's "October Business Labor Survey Results," the average monthly wage per regular worker as of September rose 3.9% from the same month last year to 4,197,000 KRW, while temporary and daily workers saw a 3.8% increase but only earned 1,710,000 KRW, which is 40.7% of regular workers' wages. The monthly wage gap is widening. This indicates an environment where it is difficult to sustain a livelihood with just one main job, forcing workers to seek side jobs.

By industry, sectors with a large increase in 'N-jobbers' showed wage growth rates below average. Wage growth rates in wholesale and retail trade (2.3%) and educational services (0.8%) were lower than the overall average of 3.8%.

The larger the company size, the more temporary and daily jobs decreased, exacerbating employment insecurity. The number of temporary and daily workers in companies with 300 or more employees dropped sharply by 36% to 198,000 this year compared to last year. Meanwhile, the number of regular workers increased by 1.9% to 2,858,000.

Experts point out that the government's public job policies are intensifying employment insecurity. Rather than groundbreaking regulatory reforms to stimulate private employment, the focus is on creating 1.06 million public jobs next year through fiscal spending. This only increases patchwork employment supported by government funds rather than productive and stable jobs. Professor Yoon Dong-yeol of Konkuk University's Department of Business Administration stated, "The government's direct job policies that only increase short-term jobs make it difficult to solve overall problems such as the dual structure of the labor market."

Recently, the government secured promises to create 175,000 jobs from large companies like Samsung Electronics through initiatives such as the 'Youth Hope ON Project.' However, criticism arises that this is not a voluntary hiring of talent by companies but rather coercion, making it unsustainable. The Ministry of Employment and Labor countered by stating that direct job budgets, including senior jobs, account for only 10% of next year's job industry budget, amounting to 3.3 trillion KRW.

Experts emphasize the need to consider productivity even in government jobs. Professor Yoon said, "It is necessary to select small and medium-sized enterprises capable of sustainable growth and enable short-term job participants to be hired as regular employees." He added, "It is problematic to simply increase participant performance by accepting companies applying for government support projects without proper screening."

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