People Power Party Rep. Yuk Kyung-jun Criticizes "Increasing Employment Numbers Only Through Youth Part-Time Jobs and Senior Financial Public Jobs"
[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seon-hee] The employment rate based on full-time workers working more than 40 hours a week has fallen to the 50% range for two consecutive years. There has also been a phenomenon where the general employment rate announced by Statistics Korea is higher than the employment rate of full-time workers. This is analyzed to be due to the rapid increase in 'short-term jobs' compared to full-time workers since the Moon Jae-in administration.
According to an analysis based on the Economically Active Population Survey data by Yoo Kyung-jun, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the People Power Party (former head of Statistics Korea), the full-time equivalent (FTE) employment rate among the population aged 15 and over was 58.6% in 2020 and 58.8% in 2021, recording the 50% range consecutively.
The FTE employment rate is an indicator calculated by counting a person who works 40 hours a week as one employed person. A person working 20 hours a week is counted as 0.5, and a person working 60 hours a week is counted as 1.5. Yoo explained that since the FTE employment rate can more accurately grasp the employment reality than the general employment rate, which counts a person working 20 hours and a person working 40 hours both as one employed person, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses the FTE employment rate alongside the general employment rate.
In particular, the FTE employment rate, which exceeded the general employment rate until 2019, became lower than the general employment rate starting in 2020. Yoo analyzed this as "due to the reduction in working hours and the rapid increase in part-time work among the youth and elderly."
By age group, the gap between the general employment rate and the FTE employment rate among those aged 30 to 59 has recently narrowed but the FTE employment rate remains higher. However, for those aged 15 to 29 and 60 and over, the general employment rate has surpassed the FTE employment rate.
Yoo pointed out, "The average weekly working hours for all ages dropped below 40 hours for the first time since statistics began to be collected, reaching 39 hours in 2020," adding, "This is not a natural reduction accompanied by productivity improvement but an artificial job creation due to economic downturn and elderly public finance jobs." He continued, "The Moon Jae-in administration's job policy was dominated by a distorted statistical idea that 'only increasing the numbers matters,' resulting in the worst outcome where short-term jobs such as youth part-time jobs and elderly public finance jobs replaced full-time jobs."
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