Gov't Pushes Public Sector for Temp Jobs to Improve Stats
13 October, 2018
The government is pushing to create around 30,000 temporary jobs by pressuring government agencies and public companies in an increasingly desperate bid to stem dwindling job statistics.
The strategy is usually reserved for emergencies like the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the 2008 global financial crisis.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance will make an announcement about its job-creation campaign next week, when Minister Kim Dong-yeon returns from the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bali.
Sources said the idea is to create 20,000 to 30,000 short-term jobs from two months to one year in the public sector to counter the deteriorating job market in the second half of the year.
The government made job growth its top priority, but a number of policies like a drastic minimum wage hike have backfired and the number of jobs is actually dwindling.
The government denied accusations last month that it is strong-arming agencies essentially in order to fiddle statistics, saying it was merely conducting a survey of recruitment plans.
However, the Chosun Ilbo has learned that the ministry called in HR managers of public agencies twice to pressure them to create short-term jobs or additional internships.
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