A man visits a job placement office, run by the labor ministry, in Seoul on April 17, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — A new report has revealed that if strong lockdown measures are taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which has recently seen a resurgence in South Korea, on third the country’s workers would have difficulty in conducting normal economic activities.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the Bank of Korea (BOK)’s Research Bureau categorized job types into three groups – non-essential, non-work-from-home, and high face-to-face interaction – noting that such jobs account for 42 percent, 74 percent and 55 percent, respectively, of those employed.
The BOK suggested that if stringent lockdown or social distancing measures are taken in response to the spread of COVID-19, workers with non-essential and non-work-from-home jobs would be highly exposed to unemployment risk from a short term perspective.
The BOK noted that the proportion of workers with non-essential and non-work-from-home jobs is estimated at around 35 percent.
In other words, if strong lockdown measures are taken, one out of three employees would have difficulty in normal economic activities resulting from a reduction in working hours or mandatory temporary leave of absence.
The share of those with high face-to-face interaction and non-work-from-home jobs is estimated at about 46 percent.
In its analysis, the BOK noted that those with these type of jobs would be vulnerable to long-term effects, albeit not now, and may have difficulty in recovery even after a long period of time.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
