Daegu City Requests 100 Billion Won from Government for Job Creation... "A Catalyst for Employment Market Restructuring"

Daegu City Adds 10 Billion Won for Hiring 16,000 People
Workers to Receive 1.2 Million Won Monthly for 5 Months

Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin presiding over the 'COVID-19' emergency economic measures meeting on April 23.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Daegu City announced on the 19th that it has recently requested 100 billion won in national funds from the government to promote the ‘public sector job’ project in active response to the employment crisis caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Amid the government’s announcement of a job creation plan worth 1.5 trillion won, Daegu City plans to prioritize investing 110 billion won in public jobs by adding 10 billion won in local funds as soon as national funds are secured, revitalizing the local employment market, which has been stagnant due to COVID-19.

The 110 billion won amount is enough for more than 16,000 job seekers including youth to receive about 1.2 million won monthly and about 6 million won over five months. If the working period is adjusted to three months, more than 26,000 people can participate.

The project schedule is flexible depending on securing national funds such as the government’s third supplementary budget, but preparations are underway to complete participant recruitment by July and start the project in earnest.

Daegu City has been continuously holding working-level meetings to secure national funds, including a video conference on the 13th chaired by Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs Seungho Lee, attended by about 50 people including heads of departments and divisions.

At the meeting, Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs Seungho Lee emphasized, “Let all public officials unite their efforts to do their best so that citizens suffering from employment crises such as unemployment can maintain at least a minimum livelihood, and to create various public sector jobs such as daily quarantine to bring a fresh breeze to the local economy.”

Currently, Daegu City is implementing public jobs involving about 5,000 participants in three areas?daily quarantine, emergency administrative support, and regionally customized public work?since April until August with a total project cost of 19 billion won.

Mayor Kwon Young-jin said regarding this, “It is true that there are criticisms and concerns about expanding public-centered jobs, but the voices from the field urgently demand emergency jobs to guarantee at least a minimum livelihood,” and added, “We will carry out the project without fail so that we can overcome this difficult time together, add vitality to the local economy, and serve as a starting point to reorganize the private-sector-centered employment market in the mid to long term.”