“In order to finance job creation, the government does not rule out the formation of supplementary budget,” Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a meeting with reporters. “All policy tools will be mobilized (to create jobs for the youth).” (Image: Yonhap)
SEJONG, Feb. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s chief economic policymaker said Thursday that the government is not ruling out the use of extra budgetary funds to help create more quality jobs for young people.
“In order to finance job creation, the government does not rule out the formation of supplementary budget,” Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a meeting with reporters. “All policy tools will be mobilized (to create jobs for the youth).”
The minister said a set of measures for youth job creation will be unveiled next month.
In January, President Moon Jae-in called for all-out efforts to create new quality jobs for young people, calling the country’s high youth jobless rate a national disaster.
Creating quality jobs, especially for the young, was one of Moon’s key election pledges. The president has promised to add 810,000 new jobs in the public sector alone during his single five-year term, which ends in May 2022.
Moon has had several display panels installed in his office to provide daily data on the country’s jobless rate and other job-related developments.
As of the end of December, the unemployment rate for people between 15 and 29 years of age came to 9.2 percent, nearly three times higher than the overall jobless rate of 3.3 percent.
The president said creating new jobs requires active support and cooperation from the private sector but insisted the government still has a responsibility to encourage such efforts.
(Yonhap)
