False job listings

“Homepany” was a buzzword among jobseekers at the end of last year. The term is a combination of the words “home” and “company,” meaning a company that is comfortable like home. Korea`s jobless youth satirically say they work at homepany when applying for a job. Those who seek work navigate the Internet in search of diverse and quality jobs at homepany, visiting job portals such as Incruit and Jobkorea and Internet communities, such as “Chwieop ppogaegi (smashing jobs)” and “Dakchigo chwieop (getting employed by any means).”

Many job listings, however, are untrustworthy. An online job community dubbed “a playground for the jobless” warned jobseekers, saying, “You can often see job listings that violate the minimum wage rule, and many are scams that force jobseekers to purchase goods or pay a commission for a job.” Certain quasi-pyramid scheme companies attract jobseekers by offering an assistant manager position with a guaranteed monthly salary of 2.5 million to 3 million won (2,300 to 2,760 U.S. dollars). If employers post positive offers excluding negative points or exaggerated or false job descriptions, dishonest job listings will be hard to discern.

Small companies can post job listings free on the government online portal “Worknet (work.go.kr).” The government is offering a bonus of 300,000 won (276.50 dollars) to each jobseeker registered the site that is hired and stays at an employer for one month, 500,000 won (460.80 dollars) for six months, and one million won (921.60 dollars) for 12 months. Twenty-two percent of 42,000 jobseekers who got a job under the system last year quit in less than a month, however. The majority of them said they felt deceived because unlike the descriptions on Worknet, employers did not provide four major insurances or give overtime payment. Given that they gave up the bonuses offered by the government, there must be much room for improvement.

“It is practically difficult to check every single listing posted by about 50,000 companies,” Korea Employment Information Service, which operates Worknet, said, “If complaints that postings is inconsistent with the company is filed, we revise the information after visiting the workplace.” To resolve the job mismatch situation between unemployed youth that look for jobs and small companies that seek employees, job listings should be trustworthy. Many employment scams exist because of too few jobs in the market. Just as the securities market strictly punishes false disclosures, Worknet might have to do the same to companies that post false job postings.

Editorial Writer Hong Kwon-hee (konihong@donga.com)