Rosy view for the country’s employment situation

Following President Lee Myung-bak’s warning about a prematurely rosy view for the country’s employment situation, the administration yesterday announced a plan to spend 3.5 trillion won ($3.03 billion) to create up to 650,000 jobs.

“The economy is improving, but the job situation is still serious, we need toplace top priority on addressing this problem.” Lee was quoted as saying duringan emergency economic meeting by his spokeswoman, Kim Eun-hye.
"Some peopleclaim that the job market will improve in one or two years, but it is just anempty promise but a political slogan,” Lee said during a meeting with senior
economic officials.

According to Kim, the president pointed out that employment tends to be a lagging indicator. and he also sought the support of the Grand National Party to approve bills linked to deregulation to nurture the country’s service industry, linking the matter with job creation.

“The president asked the administration to look at the urgency of the issue and come up with diversified job policies. Because the ordinary citizens are still struggling, so it is premature for the government to relax,” Lee said. “We must
continue fighting the crisis by speedily spending state budgets.” she said,

Lee also said Korea’s most pressing challenge is resolving the mismatching amongst the job seekers and employers.

“We need a fundamental resolution to this problem. Like many advanced countries,a tailored vocational training system should be built by linking the academia and the industries,” Lee was quoted as saying, ordering the Education, Labor andKnowledge Economy ministries to come up with a plan as soon as possible.

He urged the governing and opposition parties to expedite government-proposed revisions that would remove or ease outdated regulations in the services industry and thereby help create more work.

The Office of the Prime Minister said the government will continue to inject money into a temporary employment program through next year to create over half a million jobs. As part of the efforts, the government will extend the deadline of the state-backed employment assistant program, which offers 100,000 jobs. The program was initially due to end at the end of this year.