Part-time workers hit record high

The number of employees who work less than 18 hours a week has reached a record-high 1.2 million, reflecting the widespread concerns about employment and job security, government data revealed Monday.

The working hours of these part-timers is on average two to three hours a day, which is far shorter than the average for nonregular workers, Statistics Korea reported.

The short duration part-time workers rose to 1.20 million in January-February, up 2.6 percent from the same period last year of 1.17 million. Officials said their number was expected to keep rising in the future. 

The issue has stirred controversy, as those who work under 15 hours per week are not subject to four major state-backed insurance plans, including the national pension.

The number of these casual workers sharply increased after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the 2007-08 global financial crisis.

Before 1997 the number of short duration part-timers was 339,000, taking up only 2.4 percent of all employed workers. The number soared to 470,000 in 1999 following the economic downturn.

The numbers remained constant for a decade, until it soared again to slightly less than 1 million in 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Companies cut down on hiring new regular workers and instead recruited more nonregular and part-time workers for greater labor flexibility as profts plunged.

The rise in the number of short duration part-timers is partly attributed to the government-led job policy to share work and hire housewives. While the policy aimed at creating “high-quality” jobs with flexibility, critics claim that it has increasingly led to creating “low-quality” jobs such as caregivers and permanent part-timers, with no motivation for workers to obtain professional skills.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)