Employment Indicators Worsened... Government Praises Itself Saying "There Were Achievements"

[Asia Economy reporters Son Sun-hee (Sejong) and Jang Se-hee] Despite the deterioration of economic indicators such as employment and income inequality, the government presented a self-congratulatory interpretation, claiming "there were achievements."

At a conference held on the 6th to mark the 4th anniversary of the Moon Jae-in administration, jointly hosted by the Presidential Policy Planning Committee and the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Moon Jin-young, chair of the Inclusive Society Subcommittee, who appeared as a presenter, said, "Compared to 2017, there was a slight overall improvement, but there were meaningful employment rate advances for women, the elderly, and youth."

▲Source = Moon Jae-in Administration 4th Anniversary Conference Proceedings

This is not true. The average annual employment rate in 2016, before the Moon Jae-in administration took office, was 60.6%, and the unemployment rate was 3.7%. However, last year, the employment rate was 60.1%, and the unemployment rate was 4.0%. The employment rate fell, and the unemployment rate rose. Rather than a "slight improvement," both indicators clearly worsened. This year, the employment rate dropped to 58.6% (February 2021). Contrary to Moon’s claim, the employment rates for women and youth have stagnated for four years, and the youth unemployment rate actually increased from 8.1% to 9.0%. The only meaningful increase was in the elderly employment rate (39.5% → 42.4%).

The table presented by Moon also contains this information. Nevertheless, he said, "2020 is an exceptional year (due to COVID-19, etc.), so it is excluded." The failure to create quality jobs and the fragile employment policies, such as short-term job projects barely supported by fiscal measures, were actually exposed during the economic crisis, but this part was not mentioned at all.

The Blue House shows a similar sense of urgency about ‘public relations’ rather than substantive policy achievements. After the recently released national settlement data for last year revealed a national debt approaching 2,000 trillion won, the Blue House reportedly strongly reprimanded the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the responsible department, internally. Due to the Ministry’s inadequate explanation, it was perceived that the national debt was larger than the actual confirmed liabilities (846.9 trillion won). According to the government, a Blue House official was furious, saying, "To the public, isn’t all debt the same?" and even gave specific instructions to "make international comparisons based on each country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) size." A Ministry of Economy and Finance official said, "It was the same format as previous years, so we were at a loss due to the Blue House’s criticism."