President Yoon's Approval Rating Rises 2% to 33%
"Effect of Conservative Supporters Reuniting"
However, Labor Sector's 'Doing Well' Response at 31%, Lower Than Approval
"Effect of Reduced Controversies Over Profanity, Itaewon Disaster, MBC Issues"
[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating for his national administration has risen for three consecutive weeks. In political circles, many analyses suggested that President Yoon's tough response to the Cargo Solidarity strike and other issues gained public support. But is the rise in President Yoon's approval rating truly due to his handling of labor unions? While the labor union response helped consolidate his support base, there is also an analysis that the response to the Cargo Solidarity strike overshadowed existing negative factors.
According to Gallup's regular public opinion survey conducted from the 6th to the 8th (a telephone interview survey of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over nationwide), President Yoon's approval rating rose by 2 percentage points from the previous week to 33%. This marks a three-week consecutive increase following 30% in the fourth week of November and 31% in the first week of December.
This approval rating matches the survey conducted in the third week of September right after Chuseok. Since then, President Yoon's approval rating fluctuated between 24% and 31%. Considering the instability of his approval rating after Chuseok, this can be interpreted as a sign of breaking out of the box range.
In a public opinion survey released by Media Tomato (commissioned by News Tomato and conducted from the 5th to the 7th over three days via wireless ARS method targeting 1,005 adults aged 18 and over nationwide), President Yoon's approval rating recorded 35.1%, a 0.4 percentage point decrease from the previous week. Considering that in this survey, President Yoon's approval rating had been fluctuating in the high 20% to low 30% range, this marks a rise to the mid-30% range for two consecutive weeks.
Many interpretations suggest that the tough response to the Cargo Solidarity strike underlies the rise in President Yoon's approval rating. Indeed, after the strong stance such as the work commencement order, several surveys showed an upward trend in President Yoon's approval rating.
According to this Gallup survey, 'labor union response,' which appeared for the first time as a reason for supporting President Yoon last week, recorded 24%. This is 16% higher than the previous week.
However, there are signs from the public opinion survey that the labor union response alone cannot be seen as the cause of the approval rating increase. In Gallup's question regarding the response to labor strikes such as the Cargo Solidarity, 31% responded 'doing well,' while 51% said 'doing poorly.' The public evaluation of the response to labor strikes is lower than President Yoon's approval rating.
Therefore, Gallup also analyzed that "it is difficult to consider the labor union response as the sole factor for the rebound in the presidential job evaluation, and it is presumed to be the result of the subsiding controversies over a series of profanity scandals in the past three months, the handling of the October 29 disaster, and disputes related to media responses such as MBC."
In fact, the focus on labor-related issues, the suspension of door-stopping, and the concentration on political issues such as the budget bill and the motion to dismiss Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min reduced negative factors affecting President Yoon's approval rating, which can be seen as reasons for the approval rating increase.
Kim Bong-shin, CEO of Metavoice, explained, "As issues like the Safe Freight Rate system emerged, they seemed to have overshadowed other issues such as the Itaewon disaster and the MBC problem." However, Kim also stated that the labor union response likely contributed to the approval rating increase to some extent. He said, "Among conservative voters who had been President Yoon's supporters, some had defected, but the tough response to labor unions provided an opportunity for them to return to support." Nevertheless, he explained, "This approval rating increase is not significant, and the 2 percentage point rise is a slight change within the margin of error."
For detailed survey outlines and results related to the public opinion polls, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
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