Demographic, lifestyle changes expand part-time job market

The nation’s job market has been in a slump for the past few years, affected by the prolonged economic slowdown.

In contrast to this trend, demand for part-time or “arbeit”’ jobs has been growing across age groups at a steady pace. “Arbeit,” which means “worker” in German, has long been used to mean part-time job in Korea.

“First of all, demographic and lifestyle changes in Korea have increased demand for part-time jobs,’’ said Choe In-young, CEO of Arbeit-Chunkook, the nation’s biggest open-market platform for part-time job seekers and recruiters.

With Koreans living longer, they have to retire later in life.

“Reflecting the demographic changes, more early retirees in their 50s are expected to knock on the part-time job market, which had been dominated by those aged between 19 and 29,’’ Choe said. 

Stay-at-home moms in their 40s and 50s who want to rejoin the workforce are one of the groups creating new demand for part-time positions.

According to Choe, changing lifestyles in Korea will also boost the part-time job market as the number of young job seekers, who prefer enjoying life over holding down an arduous full-time job, is growing.

Setting its sights on the growing demand for part-time jobs, Choe, who had worked for Hewlett-Packard as a sales and marketing specialist, has capitalized on building the mobile platform for part-time job seekers and recruiters since she joined the firm in 2012.

For now, the company runs 20 mobile applications for target customer groups.

“I believe the mobile app is an effective platform for the part-time job market as it can allow easy and quick job searches and postings,’’ the CEO said.

Based on the new business platform, the company is striving to build a reputation for offering quality part-time jobs, which she considers a social contribution.

“We are aiming to become a hidden champion in our business segment, rather than a large firm,’’ Choe said.

Arbeit-Chunkook achieved double-digit yearly growth in 2014 and sees 300,000 new job postings per day.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)