Labor Ministry announces package of measures to stabilize employment in winter season

By the end of the year, the government will spend 1.8 billion won and give special job training to 5,000 people out of work due to ongoing corporate restructuring. It will provide about 400,000 won per person for job training and food expenses. Up to 1 million won per person will also be offered in job training fees to another 5,000 people who are expected to change jobs.

The Labor Ministry announced a package of measures to stabilize the employment rate Thursday, which is being threatened by ongoing corporate restructuring and the seasonal trend of job offers declining in winter.

The government took the action judging that about 75,000 people would be forced out of their jobs due to corporate restructuring to last throughout the first quarter of this year and 130,000 others, including fresh college graduates, will be unable to find employment. Combined, the number of unemployed is estimated to reach 960,000 next February with the unemployment rate standing at 4.4 percent.

Highlights of the package include the operation of funds for maintaining or boosting employment, the provision of specialized job training, financial assistance for jobless households, job training for construction workers and the operation of government-sponsored internships for college graduates.

The government is scheduled to carry out public projects for 180,000 workers until the end of the year. But anticipating that the number of jobs will sharply decline due to restructuring in the construction industry, the government decided to operate separate public projects to accommodate 5,000 construction workers daily until next February. The selected workers will be paid an allowance of 20,000 to 30,000 won a day.

The government will also give training to about 1,000 construction workers in jobs such as welding and plastering for which the workers are deemed well adjusted. An allowance of 10,000 won and a free lunch will be offered to each of them.

Companies that opt for business suspension and reduction of working hours and dispatch workers to outside workplaces instead of laying them off will become entitled to government subsidies worth 50 to 67 percent of their wages for six months. If they rehire more than 60 percent of their former employees even after changing their business category, they will receive 50 to 67 percent of their wages for one year.

An employer hiring people who were laid off due to restructuring through a job placement agency will also be awarded with cash worth 33 to 50 percent of the workers¡¯ wages for six months.

The state-sponsored internships will benefit 14,000 people who find it relatively difficult to secure employment such as women and graduates of local universities, until the first quarter of next year. About 7,000 people will be given jobs such as computer education assistants at primary, middle and high schools, or will be deployed to establish database systems in the public sector.

Meanwhile, for laborers who have subscribed to unemployment insurance for more than six months, the government will pay 50 percent of their wages for 90 to 210 days after they lose their jobs. Originally, early retirement was not covered by the insurance, but the government decided to regard those virtually forced to leave their workplaces as unemployed people and pay them unemployment allowances.