Tag: jobs

Korean Job Market is Very Tight for Foreigners with Advanced Degrees

Considering how hard it is for Koreans with advanced degrees to land good paying jobs in the current Korean market, it should be no surprise that foreigners are having a hard time as well:

Foreigners look at brochures at a job fair for foreign residents at COEX in Seoul, Sept. 18, 2019. / Yonhap

Foreigners who obtained an advanced degree in Korea are having difficulties finding work due to insufficient employment information and a lack of Korean language skills, according to the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training.

The institute released a report, Sunday, on the career preferences of international graduates with a master’s degree and above, and their perceptions on the domestic labor market. 

The study found that around 25 percent of the 8,427 foreign nationals who had completed a master’s course in the country between 2016 and 2018 were currently working here, and 53 percent of the 2,647 of those who completed their doctoral degrees here between 2017 and 2019 were employed in the country. 

The vast majority of working foreign nationals with a master’s degree were employed by private companies, while 70 percent of doctorate holders in employment were working in universities and research centers. 

The study also included a survey conducted among 650 foreign residents who had finished a postgraduate course between 2015 and 2019 on the difficulties they had faced when looking for jobs after graduation.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link,

Korean Minimum Wage Increase Leads to the Loss of 42,000 Full-time Convenience Store Jobs

Anyone surprised by this? I hope not because it is simple math that employers would cut back on employees if labor costs became too expensive due to forced minimum wage increases. This is especially true for all the mom and pop shops you see in South Korea:

The steep increase in the minimum wage caused 42,000 full-time jobs in convenience stores to disappear in 2018 as they were unable to pay the increased salaries, the Korea Association of Convenience Store Industry said Tuesday.

According to the association, the average number of jobs available per convenience store plummeted to five, down from 5.8 in 2017. The number of full-time staff who worked more than three to four days per week and received monthly wages fell from 2.3 to 1.1.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but young people in South Korea are already having a hard time finding a job and now even a convenience store job is harder to get.

Will Gunsan Become the Detroit of South Korea?

After losing two major employers the city of Gunsan is facing a population flight as workers look for jobs elsewhere in the country:

A shopping district in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province is deserted on Tuesday

The closure of GM Korea’s plant in Gunsan on Thursday is emptying the southwestern industrial town of its population in a process familiar from GM headquarters’ home of Detroit.

The Gunsan plant employed around 2,000 workers, but only 15 to 20 remain to look after the sprawling 1.2 million sq.m complex.

Song Yong-sun (55) came to work on Wednesday. “I’ve worked here for the last 23 years since the plant was built back in 1995,” he said. “I thought I’d retire at this factory, but now I’m at a loss.”

It is not the only closure turning the city in North Jeolla Province into a ghost town. Last July, a Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard shut its doors after failing to win new orders.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but could you imagine what would happen to Gunsan if the US airbase outside the city ever closed as well?

President Moon’s Job Policies Reportedly Behind Rise in Unemployment in South Korea

Very rarely have I seen President Moon be criticized in the media, but it looks like he is finally facing some heat for his domestic job policies:

South Korea has been trapped in a paradox of employment.

Domestically, the more effort the government makes, the more difficult it is for young people to find decent jobs.

In other words, President Moon Jae-in’s job policies are limiting the creation of new, quality jobs in the private sector.

Last year, Moon implemented a supplementary budget of 11.2 trillion won ($10.5 billion) to create jobs and formulated another extra budget plan of 3.9 trillion won early this month. However, the job market situation has taken a turn for the worse.

The jobless rate reached 4.5 percent in March, the highest level in 17 years. The number of jobs created came to 112,000 from the same month a year ago, sharply down from January’s 334,000.

Internationally, Korea is isolated in its job market recovery.

Many big economies, including the U.S. and Japan, are showing handsome figures in employment, while Korea’s labor market has stayed in the doldrums.

The jobless rate for the U.S. stood at 4.1 percent in March, the lowest level in 17 years. Japan’s unemployment rate was at 2.5 percent in the same month, similar to 2.4 percent in February, the lowest in nearly 25 years.

The employment fiasco for Asia’s fourth-largest economy is the outcome of a toxic mixture of three forces ― Moon’s contradictory policies, market uncertainties and technology.

First, a surge in the unemployment rate is paradoxically associated with Moon’s job policies.

The Moon administration has been trying to take the initiative in job creation rather than encouraging the private sector to hire new employees.

Moon has focused on creating jobs in the public sector by hiring more civil servants and turning irregular workers into regular ones.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I never did see how adding a bunch of government jobs without a justification for them would help the economy?

South Korean President Announces Massive Government Hiring Spree

It looks like there will soon be a lot of job openings in the government sector of South Korea:

The government has pledged to create 810,000 jobs in the public sector as a means to help young people struggling in the tight job market.

The Presidential Committee on Job Creation unveiled the plan as part of a five-year road map Wednesday.

President Moon Jae-in, who presided over the meeting, said the nation’s top 30 business groups will increase hiring by 5.6 percent this year.

On top of creating more jobs on the public sector, Moon called for private companies to join the campaign to hire more employees. “Hyundai Motor converted 7,000 subcontractors into regular workers. KT, Hanwha, POSCO and Doosan Group will also join the campaign to create more jobs,” he said.

Moon said the government will support innovative companies that actively hire more young people.

Under the plan, the government will create 340,000 jobs in the social services sector. It will start by adding 170,000 jobs in child care and nursing this year, for which there is a high demand.

An additional 170,000 positions will be created in the culture, sports and environment sectors.

The government will add 100,000 more police officers, 74,000 position in firefighting, social welfare and livestock disease control, and 174,000 in local-level civil servants.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK government has no funding plan for this hiring spree which means it will likely just be deficit spending.

Is this the Worst Summer Job In South Korea?

According to this survey working as a mascot in front of a store in the sweltering heat is the worst summer job in South Korea:

Standing outside a shop in a full-size mascot costume trying to entice customers inside is the worst summer job in Korea, according to a survey.

Part-time job portal website Albamon released the results of a survey asking 1,340 student workers what they thought were the best and worst part-time jobs for the summer.

Of the respondents, 30.3 percent of replied that their nightmare job was working as a mascot in a giant, sweltering costume.

Meanwhile, 19.5 percent of respondents chose parking attendant as the worst job. They said that high temperatures in parking lots as well as harmful vehicle emissions made the job unpleasant. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I once worked at a restaurant a long time ago as a teenager and one of my jobs was be the guy that would wear a bear costume to promote the restaurant or go to catered events.  The mascot gear fortunately had a little fan inside of it, but when that fan was not working it was incredibly hot to wear so I can understand why this is an undesirable summer job in South Korea. However, I would rather do that than be a parking attendant smelling exhaust all day.