Lee Jae-myung to Hold Youth Pledge Meeting on 'Unemployment Benefits and Credit-Based Tuition System'

Youth Pledge No.1 Key Policy
Voluntary Job Change Unemployment Benefits
Credit-Based Tuition System, etc.
Youth Pledge Opinion Gathering Meeting
Targeting Youth Vote as Main Issue

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, is holding a youth pledge meeting to court the relatively vulnerable youth vote and to reflect the voices of the policy stakeholders.

According to Lee's Open Camp on the 6th, the governor plans to hold a pledge meeting as early as this month to gather opinions on youth pledges such as the voluntary resignation job-seeking allowance policy and the credit-based tuition system, which were announced the day before.

The voluntary resignation job-seeking allowance is a pledge to improve the employment insurance benefit criteria so that job-seeking allowance, which is currently only available for involuntary resignation, can be received once in a lifetime even in the case of voluntary resignation. The credit-based tuition system allows students to pay tuition fees proportional to the credits they have taken, thereby reducing the financial burden of tuition.

The youth pledge meeting is expected to be a forum to discover additional agenda items and discuss issues centered around these pledges. In addition, the Open Camp will soon announce the second youth pledge, which is expected to include support for interest on student loans for unemployed university students and an optional conscription system.

Governor Lee has somewhat lower approval ratings among the youth compared to those in their 40s and 50s. According to a recent major candidate favorability poll (Realmeter & OhmyNews, conducted from the 3rd to 4th, nationwide 1,005 voters, margin of error ±3.1 percentage points at 95% confidence level, referenced from the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission), Lee ranked second overall in favorability (40%) following former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl (46%). However, among those in their 20s, his favorability was relatively low at 33.1%, following former Prosecutor General Yoon (44.1%), former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choi Jae-hyung (42.2%), and former party leader Lee Nak-yeon (36.4%).