150,000 Underprivileged to Get Social Service Jobs



By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

As part of government plans to increase social service jobs for the underprivileged, the self-employed who've closed down businesses and the unemployed people will be given priority.

The number of jobs could reach 150,000.

The government originally planned 126,000 social service jobs, but the number is likely to go up following the extra budget to stimulate the economy. It would cost over 250 billion won over budget.

Currently, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other ministries are hiring people for social service jobs in 35 programs including taking care of underprivileged senior citizens and children or guarding forests for roughly 1 million won monthly.

The government is pondering ways to pull down the soaring unemployment rate by providing social service jobs, increasing internships and requesting that businesses share jobs. The number of people with a job dropped by 103,000 in February, the biggest decrease since September 2003, when the credit card bubble burst.

The unemployment rate recorded 3.5 percent, surging 0.3 percentage points. When including those who gave up job searching or preparing for licenses and are thus not included in the unemployment count, the number of de-facto jobless people rises to 3 million.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr