President Park Geun-hye vowed Wednesday to press ahead with efforts to reform South Korea’s rigid labor market and other sectors.
She has been struggling to overhaul such issues as labor market duality — the difference in pay and job security between regular and non-regular workers.
Some companies shun recruitment and instead rely on non-regular workers that they can fire more easily as the economy remains sluggish, a development that pushed up the jobless rate for young people.
The unemployment rate for young people between the ages of 15 and 29 stood at 9.3 percent in May, compared with the overall jobless rate of 3.8 percent in the same period, according to government data.
She also pledged to reform the finance and public sectors as well as education, calling it “an urgent task that cannot be delayed even for a moment.” She did not elaborate.
Park made her latest appeal in a meeting with provincial officials at Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea’s presidential office.
Her comments came as the government is pushing to win parliamentary approval for a supplementary budget bill meant to revive the faltering economy.
The 11.8 trillion-won ($10.49 billion) extra budget is part of a 22 trillion-won stimulus package the government says will help revitalize the economy. (Yonhap)
