Employing older workers

"Man, you`ve got to live with two things: what you want and what you have to do," Song Jung-ki says in the Korean movie “Penny Pinchers.” Song is a jobless youth merely doing what he wants. He has no money but never sells his scooter and watches porn all day. Fortunately, he learns how to save money after meeting Han Ye-seul, a penny-pinching girlfriend. No happy ending beats getting a job, however. This seems to reflect the sorry state of youth unemployment in Korea. Statistics Korea released its report on employment trends in December last year that the number of employed youths in their 20s and 30s decreased by 50,000 and 46,000, respectively.

The government stresses that the number of those employed rose a bit given the decline of the 20- and 30-something population. Nonetheless, getting a regular job is hard. It is sad to see Song, the jobless youth, lie that he was employed at SK Telecom, a major Korean telecom company. When he buys a pair of shoes for 880,000 won (759.9 U.S. dollars) for his girlfriend, however, his parents` generation must have been pissed off. He probably does not deserve a job given his lack of common sense.

Koreans in their 50s never lived recklessly like Song. They believe that they should do manual work as long as they are healthy, and still do. Statistics Korea said, “Employment among those in their 50s or older jumped by 480,000 in 2011 from the previous year, the largest increase since the statistic was introduced in 1963.” Their job cannot be fancy because they got it after retirement. Women are cashiers and men arrange shopping carts at retail stores. Parents rolled up their sleeves and work instead of their jobless children.

Election candidates of the main opposition Democratic Unity Party candidates are courting young voters with pledges such as the "second venture era (Han Myeong-sook)," a youth employment quota (Park Yong-jin), and the "2040 Hope Funds (Park Young-sun)." Candidate Moon Seong-geun said small- and mid-size companies should be fostered to offset the dominance by conglomerates. Yet big business groups run most of the large retailers that employ those in their 50s. Politicians should tell the truth: "Whether you`re in your 20s or 50s, you can`t live by only doing what you want."

Editorial Writer Kim Sun-deok (yuri@donga.com)