Moon govt. unveils plan for job creation

The Moon Jae-in government unveiled Wednesday its final version of a road map aimed at creating over 800,000 jobs in the public sector in the next five years as part of its efforts to tackle the country's rising unemployment amid slowing growth. 

Under the plan, some 200,000 public sector temporary workers who are expected to work for the next two years or nine months a year, will be switched to full time by 2020, according to the Presidential Committee on Job Creation. Of those, 70,000 will be eligible for the change in the employment status this year, the government said.

The government plans to create 100,000 new positions in public companies, state-funded firms and other related agencies, with some 174,000 others to be open for jobs, such as police, firefighters, teachers, postmen and non-commissioned military officers. 

It will also offer 340,000 positions in the social service sector, including child care, sanitariums, medical treatment and welfare.

It is expected to spend 17 trillion won ($15 billion) of the budget to carry out the initiatives, the government said.

The move comes in line with the new liberal government's policy drive to create "quality jobs" under Moon's presidency that started in May. 

South Korea's jobless rate stood at 3.4 percent in September, with the figure for young people aged between 15 and 29 recorded at 9.2 percent.

Moon has promised his government will create some 810,000 jobs during his term, and achieve the goal by reducing irregular jobs and increasing full-time ones as a way to ensure job security. 

The labor sector has long blamed the government and industry for taking advantage of irregular workers by stripping them of basic rights and benefits. A widening income gap between full-time and non-full-time workers has been viewed as another major social issue.

The government said it will also encourage public and private sectors to keep the weekly work hours no longer than 52 hours, or 1,800 hours on an annual basis. Korea has the third-longest work hours of 2,060 per year among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states as of 2016, only after Mexico and Costa Rica. (Yonhap)