[Exclusive] Public Jobs Will Be Concentrated on Poorer Elderly

Government Raises Income Criteria for Elderly 'Public Jobs'
'First-time Participants' 5-Point Score Removed → Bonus Points Added
Increase in Public-type Jobs in Rural and Fishing Communities

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Song Seung-seop] The government will focus on providing public-type jobs to the extremely poor elderly starting this year. Public jobs are highly popular and competitive, but due to budget constraints, it is difficult to expand their scale, so the policy is to give opportunities first to those who are poorer.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 20th, the government raised the income score weight in the selection criteria for public-type jobs from 60% to 65%. This means that elderly people with lower incomes have a higher chance of being selected for public-type jobs than before. The changed criteria will be applied starting from job projects announced this year.

Public-type jobs refer to one form of employment provided by the state targeting the elderly. Among the jobs provided by the state to the elderly, unlike the private cooperation models such as ‘social service-type jobs’ or ‘market-type jobs,’ income requirements are primarily considered. The target group is basic pension recipients aged 65 or older. With this adjustment, elderly recipients with even lower incomes are expected to engage in public-type jobs.

Instead, the ‘first-time participation’ category, which was allocated 5% of the score, has been removed. Until now, the government awarded 5% of the points to elderly people who had never worked before. This was to allow as many people as possible to benefit from the limited public-type jobs. However, a bonus point system was introduced to allow first-time participants to earn some points.

Also, the more elderly population a local government has, the more public jobs it will allocate. Private-type jobs created with companies will be supplied mainly in urban areas. A Ministry of Health and Welfare official explained, “Private cooperation jobs need to be linked to demand. Since markets and companies are small or insufficient in rural and fishing villages, more public-type jobs are provided there, and private-type jobs are distributed mainly in urban areas where demand is abundant.”