76 Pct. of Koreans Support ‘Job Sharing’

A Dong-A Ilbo survey says more than 76 percent of Koreans support job sharing even if their own working hours and pay decline.

This was announced yesterday in a Dong-A poll of 1,000 people aged 19 or older to mark the daily’s 89th anniversary Saturday.

In the survey, 20.6 percent said they “fully support the measure” while 55.7 percent expressed “general support,” for a combined 76.3 percent supporting the policy.

In addition, 35.4 percent said they can accept pay cuts of 10-20 percent to help job sharing and 18.2 percent said 20-30 percent. The average pay cut the respondents said they can tolerate was 14.4 percent.

The majority of the public believe that Korea should push for a job sharing policy to jumpstart the sluggish job market and ease high unemployment even if they themselves suffer to a degree.

On action against North Korea’s impending missile launch, 41.4 percent agreed that “South Korea must change its North Korea policy and persuade Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table,” while 33.2 percent answered, “Strong sanctions should be imposed on the North.”

Also, 22.6 percent cited no need to react sensitively to the North’s move since the launch is intended to draw global attention.

On the redeployment of South Korean troops to Afghanistan, those opposed outnumbered those in support 51 to 41.7 percent.

kimkihy@donga.com