6 in 10 jobseekers willing to settle for temporary work: poll

Nearly 6 in 10 South Korean jobseekers are willing to work for even low-paying, temporary jobs, a poll showed Monday, pointing to the grim reality facing local job hunters.

The leading online job search portal JobKorea said its survey of 1,368 jobseekers showed that 57.7 percent have intentions to work even as irregular employees.

Nearly 61 percent of surveyed women answered they want to have nonregular jobs, with the comparable figure coming to 39.4 percent.

Nearly 45 percent replied they want temporary jobs in order to build their careers, while 36 percent said that the top reason is to get employed as soon as possible.

Yet, slightly over 62 percent said they have a negative view of temporary employment, while only 10 percent have a positive opinion. 

The findings come as South Korea's new President Moon Jae-in has pledged to remove all nonregular jobs in the public sector during his five-year term as part of his signature job creation campaign. Moon, who took office May 10, has promised to create 810,000 new quality jobs in the public sector over the next five years.

South Korean nonregular workers are paid much less than their regular counterparts and face tougher working conditions. According to the latest government tally, temporary workers accounted for 32 percent of all employees in the country as of the end of March 2016.

Asia's fourth-largest economy also remains dogged by high youth joblessness. The unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 29 hit 11.2 percent in April, far higher than the country's headline jobless rate of 4.2 percent. (Yonhap)