"Public Jobs Increasing More Than Twice as Fast as Private Sector"

Increase in Short-Term Public Jobs After COVID-19 Crisis
Non-Government Jobs for 60+ Age Group Rise 74.6% to Record High

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hye-young] Since the current administration took office, public sector jobs have increased more than twice as fast as private sector jobs. There are concerns that the labor cost burden from the increase in public sector jobs could lead to a deterioration of the national fiscal condition.

The Korea Economic Research Institute under the Federation of Korean Industries announced on the 11th that, based on an analysis of Statistics Korea's "Job Administration Statistics" released last month, public sector jobs increased by 16.0% from 2016, the time of data compilation, to 2020, while private sector jobs only increased by 7.3%.

By year, the growth rate of public sector jobs began to significantly outpace that of private sector jobs starting in 2019.

The year-over-year increase rates for public sector jobs were 2.0% and 0.8% in 2017 and 2018 respectively, but rose sharply to 6.2% and 6.3% in 2019 and 2020.

In contrast, the private sector job growth rates were 1.3% in 2017, 1.1% in 2018, 2.1% in 2019, and 2.5% in 2020, all significantly lower than the public sector growth rates except for 2018.

The Korea Economic Research Institute explained that the sharp increase in short-term public jobs created through tax revenue significantly boosted the public sector job growth rate.

Supporting this analysis is the rapid rise in the growth rate of non-civil servant jobs within government agencies starting from 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. The year-over-year growth rate of non-civil servant jobs was 2.8% in 2017, dropped to -3.5% in 2018, then surged to 10.6% in 2019 and further jumped to 15.1% in 2020.

In particular, the growth rate of non-civil servant jobs with less than three years of tenure skyrocketed from -10.9% in 2018 to 11.3% in 2019, and remained high at 7.9% in 2020.

Looking at the public job growth rate by age group during this period, those aged 60 and over had the highest increase at 74.6%, followed by those in their 50s (24.6%) and those aged 29 and under (24.4%).

The Korea Economic Research Institute analyzed that the sharp rise in non-civil servant jobs for those aged 60 and over (76.4%) was due to the government and local governments significantly expanding financially supported jobs for the elderly.

Following the 60 and over group were those in their 50s (47.6%), those aged 29 and under (20.6%), those in their 40s (3.8%), and those in their 30s (-8.2%).

The Korea Economic Research Institute expressed concern, stating, "As the fiscal condition of the public sector continues to worsen, the increase in labor costs due to the expansion of public jobs will become an even greater burden."

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