Gov't to create nearly 1 million part-time jobs to boost employment

The government said Tuesday it will create nearly 1 million decent part-time jobs by 2017 as part of an effort to boost the country's employment rate by diversifying employment patterns and to give women, adolescents and the elderly more chances to work.

It is one of the key measures under the government's comprehensive policy roadmap to raise the employment rate to 70 percent, a main pledge made by President Park Geun-hye during last year's election campaign. The latest government data showed South Korea's employment rate stood at 59.8 percent in April.

With a goal of creating 930,000 part-time jobs by 2017, Seoul has decided to push for the hiring of part-time mid-level civil servants and public school teachers for the first time in 2014.

To encourage the private sector to join the move, the government will provide companies that create quality part-time positions with tax benefits, along with other administrative incentives, according to officials.

Aimed at reducing the country's notoriously long working hours and seeking effective ways to share jobs, the government also plans to revise rules on wages and vacation. For example, it is considering allowing parents to work shorter hours for one year following their yearlong parental leave.

According to a 2011 report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korean employees had the second longest work week of any country checked by putting in 44.6 hours, with only Turkey being ahead with its workers spending 48.9 hours on the job. South Koreans worked 2,193 hours per year, 372 hours longer than the OECD average.

In total, the government decided to create 2.38 million jobs by 2017, or 476,000 million jobs per year over the next five years, mostly in new "creative" business fields such as culture, science and welfare.

The job creation drive aims to give greater opportunities for women, adolescents and senior citizens, who have been marginalized in the country's male-dominated labor market.

To prevent women from quitting their jobs due to childbirth and child-rearing, which has been blamed for the country's chronically low birthrate, the government will allow working moms to take maternity leave at any time before their child reaches 9 years old.

Currently, the age limit is 6 years.

State support will be also expanded for firms in finding substitute workers for those on parental leave and in opening day care centers, with the government to toughen supervision of the companies that see a higher rate of working moms quitting.

In 2012, the employment rate among women came to 53.5 percent, some 16 percentage points less than the average of 13 OECD member countries.

As a way to boost the youth employment rate, the government plans to introduce the so-called work-study dual system under which students can enjoy chances to receive job training in class, and to set up a task force to match young job seekers with companies searching for applicants.

The employment rate among South Koreans in their 20s fell to a record low of 55.8 percent in March, according to government data.

The government also announced diverse measures to improve the overall quality of jobs, such as renewing contracts of irregular workers at public institutions into regular ones and expanding insurance benefits for those in legal gray areas.

"The government has a strong willingness to shift the paradigm of the country's labor market from a male, manufacturers and large companies-oriented one to female, service sectors and small firms-centered one," Prime Minister Chung Hong-won said in a statement.

"Diverse types of employment, with reduced working hours, are expected to guarantee the happiness of the public," he said, vowing to review the roadmap on a yearly basis to effectively achieve the target. (Yonhap News)