Reducing working hours would do little to create jobs

LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) predicted Wednesday that reducing the legal number of working hours from the current 48 per week to 44 would do little to create new jobs. So far there have been numerous indications that the reduction of legal working hours would not necessarily lead to the curtailment of actual working hours, but this is the first time that an institute specifically suggested that the measure would not prove helpful in creating jobs. The institute also reported that if the system of reduced legal working hours is implemented from the second half of next year, the nation¡¯s gross domestic product (GDP) would suffer a 3 to 4 percent decline until the year 2010. It also estimated that if existing employees work hours that become overtime under the new system without improving productivity, the reduction would cost the nation an additional 8.6 trillion won per year. In cases where new employees are hired to fill the hours, the new measure was predicted to cause an additional financial burden of 12.2 trillion won.