Changwon Jinhae-gu to Extend Employment Crisis Area and Special Employment Support for Shipbuilding Industry by 1 Year

Changwon City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Sang-hyun] Changwon City in Gyeongnam announced on the 17th that the designation period for the employment crisis area in Jinhae-gu has been extended by one year.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor decided at the 9th Employment Policy Deliberation Committee, held in writing from the 14th to the 16th of this month, to extend the designation period of eight employment crisis areas nationwide, including Jinhae-gu, Changwon, until December 31, 2022.

Thus, Jinhae-gu has had its designation period extended four times since it was first designated as an employment crisis area in April 2018 due to the regional shipbuilding industry’s consecutive downturn.

This decision to extend the designation period for the employment crisis area and the special employment support industry for shipbuilding was made considering that, despite recent expectations of recovery in new shipbuilding orders, the time lag between ship orders and production requires continuous government support until the increase in new orders leads to a full employment recovery on site.

The shipbuilding industry in the Changwon area experienced a significant decline in new ship orders due to the global economic shutdown caused by the spread of COVID-19, which also delayed the recovery of employment and industrial conditions.

With this extension, Jinhae-gu will continue to receive comprehensive government-level job support measures, including employment stability and vocational skill development, regional employment promotion, comprehensive employment support plans, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Over the past three years and seven months since the designation as an employment crisis area, Jinhae-gu has received support for 21,91 cases involving 27,342 people amounting to 24.443 billion KRW through employment maintenance subsidies, employment promotion subsidies, regional employment promotion subsidies, and additional youth employment incentives for SMEs.

Additionally, by applying incentives from local investment promotion subsidies, 15 companies signed investment attraction agreements with an investment amount of 570.3 billion KRW and 4,884 new jobs. The five rounds of the Hope Work Support Project, which cost 59.7 billion KRW, saw participation from 11,314 people across Changwon.

Mayor Heo Seong-mu said, "I hope that this extension of the designation period for the employment crisis area in Jinhae-gu and the special employment support industry for shipbuilding will break the long stagnation of our local shipbuilding industry and serve as an opportunity to open the way for positive growth in 2022."