Long slump to push jobless rate up to 4%

The nation`s average unemployment rate this year is expected to exceed 4 percent in the event the current economic slump is prolonged.

This was revealed in a report by the Ministry of Labor in a session of the National Assembly Special Committee on Unemployment Measures, Friday. The Ministry said that the conditions for employment this year are variable, depending on the economic situation in the rest of the year. ``If the economic slump continues to grip the nation and the economic growth rate goes below 4 percent, the average unemployment rate may register 4.2 percent.``

The ministry said, ``The jobless rate continued to rise since last October with the rate recording 3.4 percent and it registered 5.0 percent in February, bringing the total number of jobless to 1.07 million.`` However, the ministry reported that the rate began to decline since March because seasonal elements were removed.

The ministry will hold a nationwide employment fair around the end of this month to boost employment among young people with no jobs, including university graduates this year. The government will increase the number of subsidized interns to be hired by private companies and provide specialized education to 18,000 people and overseas training to 2,000 in the information technology (IT) field through IT education agencies, according to the report.

In order to stabilize the employment of people in their 40s and 50s, the ministry will pay for part of the expenses spent by private firms on job training programs for the jobless using the employment insurance fund. The ministry will also introduce special job training courses for about 6,000 middle-aged jobless people, it said in the report.