40,000 Jobs Disappeared in 2003

The Ministry of Finance and Economy calculated that South Korea lost about 40,000 jobs in 2003 alone due to the economic recession. For the first time in five years since 1998 when an Asian economic crisis hit South Korea, the country is seeing new employment rates shrink.

The Ministry said on Friday that 22,130,000 people were newly employed last year, the first year that the Roh Moo-hyun administration was launched, with 40,000 jobs lost compared to last year.

The number of jobs created in 1998 was down by 1,270,000 when a foreign exchange crisis stroke South Korea, but the figure had continued growing until last year with 353,000 jobs created in 1999, 865,000 jobs in 2000, 416,000 jobs in 2001, and 597,000 jobs in 2002, respectively.

The Ministry said that even though South Korea saw more than two percent of economic growth last year, job openings declined due to weak domestic consumption in the service sector and small and mid-sized enterprises, which played a leading role in the employment market.

The decline in job openings helped worsen the youth unemployment rate, which appeared to be a major social problem in addition to mounting credit card debt and delinquencies. In addition, people in low and middle-income brackets have felt that the economy has been chilly.

In the meantime, the number of jobs created rose by 3,160,000 from 19,010,000 in 1992 to 22,170,000 in 2002. Specifically, 600,000 jobs disappeared in the agriculture and fishing industry between 1992 and 2002, and 780,000 jobs (including 740,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector) had been lost in the mining and manufacturing industries during the same period. The construction industry, however, saw 60,000 new jobs created and 448 new employments were created in the service sector between 1992 and 2002 as well.

Park Bung-won, the assistant secretary of Finance and Economy, said that the most important factor he considers in economic management policy is the employment rate since the unemployment rate, which does not include those who give up finding jobs, can frequently vary. He added that the country will put priority on creating jobs. With this goal, the country will make every effort to galvanize investments and ease regulations.

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com