‘Reduction Crisis’ Senior Job Program, Gwangju City Protected It

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City will expand the 2023 senior job project, which the government reduced, to this year's scale and operate it.

This is because if the senior job project decreases, there is concern that a welfare blind spot will occur for low-income elderly people who desperately need to maintain their livelihood.

Mayor Kang recently instructed related departments on the 28th of last month to actively respond to minimize citizen inconvenience due to the reduction in total participants in 2023, following the government's announcement of a reduction in the public interest activity-type senior job project amid cuts to the 2023 national subsidy welfare budget.

So far, the number of senior job projects in Gwangju has steadily increased from 21,563 in 2019 to 28,240 in 2022. However, due to the government's 2023 welfare budget cuts, about 2,500 public interest activity-type jobs have been reduced, raising concerns about the livelihood crisis of low-income elderly people.

In response, Gwangju City plans to continue the project by maintaining the total number of participants in 2023 at around 28,000, the 2022 level, through securing funds for the non-national subsidy portion, including using its own budget.

Senior jobs through public interest activities have relatively low labor intensity and help elderly people maintain their livelihood. It is judged that reducing these jobs will accelerate difficulties. In fact, 90% of those participating in the senior job project are elderly people aged 70 or older.

The 8.6 billion KRW allocated as the 2023 senior job project’s own budget is expected to be finalized in mid-December after review by the city council.

Mayor Kang said, “Next year’s budget plan was prepared as a ‘crisis economic support budget’ to overcome the economic crisis. Since senior jobs are directly linked to the livelihood of low-income elderly people, we will maintain this year’s scale and provide customized care services so that the elderly have no worries in their lives.”

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