Gumi-si, 'Brown Bag Meeting' Innovative Communication with Employees in Their 20s

Youth Population Outflow in Their 20s

Discussion Forum to Find Breakthrough Solutions

From the 2nd, Gumi City in Gyeongbuk held a brown bag meeting for three days in the Environment and Transportation Bureau meeting room at City Hall to freely discuss the recent contentious issue of the outflow of young people in their 20s with employees.

Brown Bag Meeting.

A brown bag meeting is a discussion gathering accompanied by a simple lunch, named after the cheap brown paper bags used to carry foods like sandwiches purchased at discount marts.

According to the population movement statistics from the National Statistical Office, last year, 35% of the net population outflow from Gumi City was women in their 20s, with an overwhelming majority moving to the Seoul metropolitan area including Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. In the past, men in their late 20s moved to Seoul for employment, but now it is common across non-metropolitan areas including Gumi City that women in their early to mid-20s move to Seoul and Gyeonggi regions.

Accordingly, a meeting was arranged to casually share opinions with employees in their 20s from the Environment and Transportation Bureau on practical measures to prevent the outflow of young people, especially women in their 20s heading to Seoul.

They took time to vividly understand the current status of Gumi City from the perspective of people in their 20s and to consider together what kind of policies should be accompanied to meet the needs and tendencies of the youth.

Park Eun-hee, Director of the Environment and Transportation Bureau, said, “The outflow of young people in their 20s is an essential issue to address in order to create a livable and sustainable Gumi. Through meetings with employees in their 20s, we plan to listen to sincere opinions about their jobs, marriage, and culture, and discover innovative ideas for the development of Gumi City through empathy.”