"Looking for Workers During Seol Holiday"...Short-Term Part-Time Job Platform 'Bukjeok'

MZ Generation Seeking Jobs Instead of Returning Home or Traveling
Danggeun's Short-Term Part-Time Job Listings Related to Seol 38%
Sharp Increase from 20% Last Chuseok

As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, job platforms are bustling. This is because the demand from self-employed individuals looking for short-term part-time jobs during the holiday period has increased, and a trend is spreading among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) to spend time working rather than visiting their hometowns during the holidays.

On the 30th, local community platform Danggeun announced that the proportion of short-term part-time job postings on its own job platform, Danggeun Alba, seeking workers for the Lunar New Year holiday period recently reached 38%. Considering that the proportion of related job postings during last year’s Chuseok holiday was about 20% of the total, job connections during the holiday season have become more active.

At the 'Neighborhood Job Fair' set up online by Danggeun to connect various jobs and labor in local areas, a steady stream of job seekers looking for short-term jobs around their neighborhoods during the Lunar New Year holiday continues. The fair, which started on the 5th of this month and runs until the 8th of next month, just before the Lunar New Year holiday, had 13.5 million visitors as of the 29th. Cases of successful job matches are approaching 70,000. Baek Byunghan, team leader of Danggeun Alba, explained, “Danggeun Alba’s ‘short-term alba’ feature quickly connects self-employed people who urgently need labor during the holiday rush with those looking for short-term jobs near their homes during the holiday period.”

On 'Ssun,' a short-term part-time job platform serviced by Kmong, many companies offer higher hourly wages during holidays such as Lunar New Year compared to usual. Some even offer up to 100% additional pay. As a result, the number of job seekers who give up traveling or visiting their hometowns to find part-time jobs is increasing. On Ssun, the number of part-time job postings during last year’s Lunar New Year period increased by about 69% compared to the previous week, and hourly wages rose by about 30%.

The popularity of Lunar New Year part-time jobs is evidence that short-term part-time jobs are gradually gaining a larger share in the recent job market. Typically, short-term part-time jobs refer to one-time jobs or part-time work lasting less than one month or not exceeding 15 hours per week. According to the National Statistical Portal of Statistics Korea, as of December last year, there were 1,598,000 employed people working an average of 1 to 14 hours per week. This is an increase of 78,000 compared to the same period the previous year. With recent high inflation and worsening labor shortages, self-employed individuals prefer short-term part-time jobs that have lower labor costs. Hiring for more than 15 hours per week requires providing weekly holiday pay, which increases fixed expenses.

Moreover, the MZ generation prefers to work during spare time rather than being tied to one place for a long time, so they look for short-term part-time jobs. According to a survey by Albamon last year, more than half (61.6%) of part-time job seekers preferred short-term part-time jobs. By generation, Generation Z showed the highest preference for short-term part-time jobs at 64.3%, followed by Millennials at 62%. The main reason for preferring short-term part-time jobs was that 83.8% wanted to work briefly only when necessary.

An industry insider said, “Short-term part-time jobs are gradually becoming a meaningful form of employment, with an increasing number of self-employed people securing labor through short-term part-time jobs,” adding, “Job search platforms for part-time work are also focusing on service differentiation competition.”

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