"Looking for Short-Term Workers"... Busy Short-Term Part-Time Job Platforms

Rapid Increase in Users of Short-Term Part-Time Job Platforms

The job platform is bustling with short-term part-time jobs. This is because the demand from self-employed business owners looking for people to work for short periods has increased recently, and the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) tends to prefer working during their spare time rather than being tied to one place for a long time.

The part-time job matching platform 'Ssun' announced on the 30th that the recruitment of short-term part-time jobs has increased by more than 150% compared to the previous year. The number of jobs actually matched has also increased to about 6,000 per month. This is about three times more than last year. Typically, short-term part-time jobs refer to one-time jobs, jobs within one month, or part-time jobs that do not exceed 15 hours per week.

The first factor behind the increase in short-term part-time job recruitment is the greater need for labor following the COVID-19 endemic (an infectious disease that has become endemic). Although labor is needed, self-employed business owners who are still struggling due to high prices prefer short-term part-time jobs because the labor cost burden is lower. If they hire for more than 15 hours per week, they must provide weekly holiday pay, which increases fixed costs. Park Dongsik, the team leader in charge of the Ssun service, explained, "With the endemic, recruitment and job-seeking in the short-term part-time job market have greatly increased, and the actual number of Ssun users is steadily rising."

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Short-term part-time jobs should not be taken lightly. On the contrary, job seekers show greater interest. According to a survey by Albamon last month of 511 people with part-time job experience, 61.6% responded that they prefer short-term part-time jobs, which is more than half. By generation, Generation Z showed the highest preference for short-term part-time jobs at 64.3%, followed by Millennials at 62%. This indicates that the MZ generation clearly prefers short-term part-time jobs. Regarding the reason for preferring short-term part-time jobs, 83.8% answered "to work briefly only when needed."

Given this situation, short-term part-time job positions quickly run out despite the recent labor shortage. On 'Danggeun Alba,' a part-time job platform operated by Danggeun Market, 67.6% of short-term part-time job postings receive applications within one hour. The rate of connecting with applicants within 10 minutes is also close to half at 42.5%. Baek Byunghan, the team leader of Danggeun Alba, said, "Various types of short-term part-time jobs are actively posted, and the needs of recruiters and job seekers are being connected easily and quickly."

The industry expects the share of short-term part-time jobs in the job market to grow further. According to the National Statistical Portal of Statistics Korea, last year, 1,577,000 people were employed for an average of 1 to 14 hours per week, an increase of 65,000 from the previous year. This accounts for 5.6% of all employed people. Both the scale and proportion are the largest since the statistics began in 2000. An industry official said, "Short-term part-time jobs are gradually becoming a meaningful form of employment," adding, "As more self-employed business owners secure manpower through short-term part-time jobs, part-time job platforms will also focus on service differentiation competition."