Gwangju City to Hire Over 12,000 Citizens for Public Jobs This Year

Announcement of the 5th Livelihood Stabilization Measures to Protect the Local Economy from COVID-19

Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, is announcing plans to hire more than 12,000 citizens in public jobs this year as part of the "5th Livelihood Stabilization Measures to Protect the Local Economy from COVID-19." Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City will hire more than 12,000 citizens for public jobs this year to promote the livelihood stability of citizens struggling due to COVID-19 and to revitalize the local economy.

On the morning of the 8th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, held the 2nd Gwangju Emergency Economic Countermeasures Meeting in the city hall’s medium conference room to discuss measures for hiring citizens in the public sector, and in the afternoon announced the ‘5th Livelihood Stability Measures to Protect the Local Economy from COVID-19’ at the city hall briefing room.

Gwangju City has announced and is implementing emergency livelihood stability measures with a transfusion nature, such as special loans for small business owners, reduction of public utility fees and rents, and emergency living expense support for households, in four rounds to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.

However, as the COVID-19 situation prolongs and sales and jobs are rapidly decreasing, Gwangju City judged that protecting jobs, the last stronghold of the livelihood economy, and reducing unemployment are the most urgent tasks. Therefore, the 5th livelihood stability measures will focus on creating public jobs.

Through job creation, Gwangju City aims not only to encourage citizens who are frustrated and struggling due to the COVID-19 economic crisis and promote their livelihood stability, but also to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts and the local economy through a so-called ‘virtuous cycle of consumption-sales-production’ by linking their wage income to consumption.

Gwangju City will promote the citizen public job project in two phases, with a total of 23 projects and a scale of 64.3 billion KRW.

The first phase, the ‘Living Quarantine Job Project,’ is a public job project responsible for living quarantine to block the spread of COVID-19 and livelihood expense support tasks to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.

The first phase project will be implemented immediately from this month, investing 4.4 billion KRW in five project areas to hire about 1,000 people.

This includes living quarantine teams disinfecting multi-use facilities in residential areas, public transportation facility disinfection teams, jobs operating living treatment centers, and the hiring of COVID-19 livelihood economy keepers who guide and receive applications for the Gwangju-type three major emergency livelihood expense supports.

The second phase, the ‘Livelihood Stability Job Project,’ aims to expand local jobs reduced by the economic recession and unemployment caused by COVID-19. It is a public job project focused on citizens’ convenience and safety in areas such as environment, transportation, and childcare. From next month through the second half of the year, 59.9 billion KRW will be invested in 18 project areas to hire 11,395 people.

Major projects include neighborhood cleanliness projects for city environment improvement, illegal advertising material cleanup, urban park environment maintenance, and river waterfront facility management. A total of 17 billion KRW will be invested in seven projects to hire 2,500 people.

Additionally, 28.6 billion KRW will be invested in five projects, including child protection zone safety keeper projects to prevent child traffic accidents and maintain traffic safety order, and job projects involving career-interrupted women and local youth supporting meals, snacks, and learning at local children’s centers.

Furthermore, the second phase project includes additional measures to support small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A project will be promoted on a scale of 2,000 people to support employers by covering 50% of workers’ wages when small business owners, special employment support industries (travel, tourism accommodation, tourism transportation, performance), and manufacturing SMEs hire new personnel amid difficulties caused by COVID-19.

The total budget required for the citizen public job project is 64.3 billion KRW, which will be covered by reallocating unnecessary budgets to job budgets through national funds and Gwangju City’s existing budget adjustments. If insufficient, funds will be secured through local bond issuance while maintaining fiscal soundness.

To efficiently implement this project, Gwangju City will establish a ‘Citizen Public Job Support Center’ directly under the Vice Mayor for Culture and Economy to support and guide the overall project, promote it, and conduct recruitment on the principle of open recruitment.

Detailed recruitment contents and procedures for each project will be announced on the Gwangju City website by installing a ‘Citizen Public Job Support Center’ banner.

Applicants for the citizen job project must be residents registered in Gwangju for more than 30 days as of the application date, and other qualification requirements can be checked on the Gwangju City website when the project is announced.

Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, said, “Jobs are the best welfare and the beginning of a happy life, and they are the fundamental solution to consumption stagnation, low growth, and citizen anxiety caused by the COVID-19 crisis.” He added, “Although temporary, we will create a large-scale citizen job project to stabilize livelihoods and aim to connect this to a sustainable and stable job project to revitalize the local economy.”

He continued, “Through the citizen job project, we will secure personnel to build a watertight quarantine safety net and a detailed economic stabilization system to protect citizens’ health and the livelihood economy simultaneously.”