"Employment Support Fund 68 Times Higher, Unemployment Benefits Up 34%... Need to Increase Workforce at Employment Centers Facing 'Work Overload'"

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Opinions have been raised in the National Assembly that manpower should be supplemented at employment centers, where the workload has surged due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis.

According to data obtained on the 5th by Lee Su-jin, a member of the Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly from the Democratic Party of Korea, applications for employment retention support funds from March to September increased 68 times compared to the same period last year, and the number of unemployment benefit cases processed increased by 34% due to the COVID-19 crisis.

New COVID-19 response projects through supplementary budgets, such as the Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund (1.76 million people in the first round, 660,000 in the second round) and emergency support for family care costs, are also being promoted through employment centers as the delivery system.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor deployed about 1,300 personnel from March to handle the surge in workload caused by COVID-19, and from July, an additional 1,000 temporary workers were added through the third supplementary budget.

However, if the contracts of the 1,000 temporary workers are terminated all at once in December, just one month later, serious disruptions in COVID-19 response are expected. Given the high fatigue levels among current employment center staff, there are also concerns about morale decline and increased job burnout due to the reduction of existing personnel.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

With the COVID-19 situation unlikely to be resolved easily next year, the workload at employment centers is also expected to continue increasing.

Representative Lee Su-jin said that to address the serious manpower shortage at employment centers caused by COVID-19, it is necessary to convert and manage the current 'Employment Support Officers' as regular vocational counselors.

Employment Support Officers are indefinite-term contract workers at employment centers who perform tasks such as career guidance, vocational psychological testing, and preliminary briefings for unemployment benefit recipients.

Representative Lee argued, "To continuously process the sharply increased employment retention support funds and unemployment benefits this year, the contract period of 800 currently employed temporary workers should also be extended until June next year."

He added, "If the Employment Support Officers currently working at employment centers are integrated as vocational counselors, it will be possible to respond more organically to the rapidly increasing demand for employment services," emphasizing, "The Ministry of Employment and Labor must actively secure the budget to cope with the increased demand for employment services."