[Editorial] Employment package

The government is planning to introduce a quota for the employment of young people to combat worsening youth joblessness. At the same time, it will promote part-time employment to create jobs for women and those approaching old age.

These measures are part of an employment package the government is to announce soon to meet President Park Geun-hye’s key campaign promise of raising the nation’s employment rate from the present 64.2 percent to 70 percent by 2017.

To tackle youth unemployment, the National Assembly passed a bill early this month that requires public corporations funded by the central and local governments to hire every year young people amounting to at least 3 percent of their workforce.

The number of employees at these corporations totaled 254,000 as of 2012. If they follow the 3 percent quota regulation, some 7,600 positions would be created each year for young job seekers.

But this alone would not be enough to meet the government’s goal of boosting the employment rate of people aged 15 to 29 from the present 40.4 percent to 47.7 percent within five years.

Therefore, the government plans to encourage private companies to adopt the quota system. Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said various incentives would be offered for companies to expand youth employment.

These measures would help curb youth unemployment. But they cannot be seen as the fundamental solution to the problem.

To help young people get employed, the government needs to reform vocational education for high school and college students. The need for reform in this sector has been well demonstrated by the success of meister high schools.

According to reports, about 85 percent of meister school students have found a job after graduation, far higher than the average of 59.5 percent for college graduates. The high employment rate is attributable to the field-based vocational training the schools have provided to students.

To expand employment opportunities for women and senior citizens, the government plans to create 10,000 public-sector part-time jobs a year for the next five years.

Officials say the civil service has the potential to create many part-time jobs. The total number of civil servants at the central and local governments, excluding teachers, is 640,000. Of them, part-timers account for a mere 4,300 or less than 1 percent, much smaller than the OECD average of 15 percent.

If the initiative for the public sector produces positive outcomes, the government will push private companies to expand part-time positions. It plans to offer tax incentives to them.

Promoting part-time employment is an effective way to boost the employment rate, as has been shown in many developed countries. But the task will not be easy here, not least because the public perception of part-time jobs is negative.

Currently, part-time workers are usually treated as irregular staff and as a result suffer disadvantages in terms of wage, promotion and other benefits.

So the first thing the government needs to do is to ensure that part-time workers are fully protected by legislation. They should be treated no less favorably than full-time equivalent colleagues. Otherwise, people’s perceptions will not change.