Since its installment in February 2013, President Park Geun-hye’s administration has put increasing youth employment on top of its policy agenda. It has poured more than 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in various programs designed to get more young people into the workforce.

To its embarrassment, the country’s youth jobless rate has set a record monthly high in recent months, standing at 10.3 percent in June, according to figures from Statistics Korea. Some private researchers estimate the actual youth joblessness hovers above 30 percent.


The data from the national statics office showed employees in their 20s were outnumbered by those in their 60s and older during the second quarter of this year.

Critics say a string of measures taken by the government has just increased temporary jobs, falling short of adding decent jobs young jobseekers want.

“The job mismatch problem cannot be resolved by adhering to short-term measures distanced from the need of youths,” said Kim Won-shik, an economics professor at Konkuk University in Seoul.

Last year alone, 14 government agencies implemented 57 job programs for young people, which cost more than 2 trillion won.

But many of them failed to bring the expected results. For example, the government pushed for a program aimed at creating 6,000 jobs by providing subsidies for companies that increase youth employment but only 157 people landed jobs through it.

Furthermore, young people hired through state-funded programs tend to receive less wages and have less secure employment status.

According to an analysis by the National Assembly Budget Office, more than 40 percent of workers who have found jobs with the help of the government are paid less than 1.5 million won in monthly wages, far higher than the corresponding figure for employees that have landed jobs on their own at 24.3 percent.

Over 42 percent of workers hired through state-sponsored programs work on an irregular and temporary basis, compared to 30 percent for other employees.

These worse conditions lead young people employed through government programs to be less committed to their job.

A survey by the Ministry of Employment and Labor showed nearly half of 69,975 youths who took part in job programs in 2013 remained jobless last year.

Of the young people employed as interns at small and medium-sized companies in 2013, only 38.5 percent worked for more than a year after changing to a regular status, though the government offered allowances to encourage youths to remain at their workplace. The allowance program was abolished this year.

In a recent survey of 1,000 people aged 19-29, more than 65 percent said what is most urgently needed to support youths is to create more decent jobs.

The preference for stable and secure work is reflected in a report released by the national statistics office last week, which showed four in 10 young jobseekers were preparing for exams to recruit civil servants.

Amid growing economic uncertainties, however, it is becoming difficult for the government to prod large private businesses and public corporations to employ more workers. Moreover, the number of jobs preferred by young jobseekers is set to be reduced in the process of the planned corporate restructuring and due to the extension of retirement age that took effect this year.

Experts say measures need to be strengthened to improve working conditions at small and medium-sized enterprises that hire nearly 90 percent of all waged laborers in the country.

“The youth joblessness could hardly be eased without inducing more young people to work at SMEs,” said Kim Woo-chul, a professor of taxation at the University of Seoul.

He called on the government to expand financial support for SMEs to help them increase wages and other benefits for their employees.

Deregulation should be accelerated to spur the development of next generation industries and the service sector, where young people could find more job opportunities, experts say.

They note it makes little sense for some regional governments to move to hand out youth allowances, saying one-off benefits would be nothing more than a painkiller.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s plan to pay 3,000 young citizens a monthly allowance of 500,000 won for six months has faced objection from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

In a response that might be unexpected for city officials, just over half of the 1,000 young people polled earlier this month were in favor of the plan. Most respondents called for more fundamental solutions to youth unemployment.

By Kim Kyung-ho (khkim@heraldcorp.com)