No. of people seeking jobs for more than 6 months hit record high in 2017
장기백수 14만7천명, 사상 최대 Nearly 150-thousand South Koreans have been out of work for six months or longer last year. The number of so-called long-term unemployed has been growing among the total jobless population in the nation. Won Jung-hwan breaks down the discouraging digits for us. The number of Koreans who have been looking for work for over six months... hit a record high last year. According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday,... the number of people unemployed for more than six months stood at around 147-thousand last year,... up more than ten percent from a year earlier. The figure is the highest since records began in 2000,... with even more people unemployed for over six months last year than during the 2008 global financial crisis when the number reached over 80-thousand. ( -KOREAN) "The current long-term unemployed population is continuing to rise, and this increase is likely to spread across the whole industry as the country's overall economic situation deteriorates" Those out of work for over six months account for 14-point-3 percent of the total unemployed last year,... which is an even higher percentage than the 14.1 percent reached in 2000 during the aftermath of Korea's IMF crisis. Even more worrying is that this unemployment rate is particularly high among young people in Korea. The youth unemployment rate,... which is the rate among people aged 15 to 29,... also hit a record-high of nine-point-nine percent last year. This young person, who wished to remain anonymous, said there is a lack of job opportunities for job seekers. ( -KOREAN) "I have been looking for a job for more than six months now, and when I listen to stories among my friends who are searching for jobs, too,… it seems that the number of competitors is ever growing, but the number of opportunities out there is not." Besides the lack of job opportunities, the reason behind the increase in long-term unemployment could also be that job seekers are looking for better-quality jobs. (KOREAN) "My goal is to find a job that fits my qualifications and career, so I think that's why is taking me longer than expected to find the right one." The proportion of unemployed who are long-term unemployed has nearly doubled from 7.5 percent in 2014 to 14.3 percent in 2017, and experts say that measures must be taken to combat this trend. ( -KOREAN needs editing) "There are three main ways for employers to help people who have been seeking for a job for more than six months. First, companies should invest more in diversifying human capital across their departments, second they should be more aware of the current unemployment situation, and third they should cooperate with the government to come up with measures that tackle the current labor market." But as people from the younger generation are becoming more selective in their choice of work, unless the number of good-quality jobs increases, this trend is likely to continue. Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News. Arirang News Facebook: / arirangtvnews ------------------------------------------------------------ [Subscribe Arirang Official YouTube] ARIRANG TV: / arirang ARIRANG RADIO: / music180arirang ARIRANG NEWS: / arirangnews ARIRANG K-POP: / arirangworld ARIRANG ISSUE: / arirangtoday ARIRANG CULTURE: / arirangkorean ------------------------------------------------------------ [Visit Arirang TV Official Pages] Facebook: / arirangtv Twitter: / arirangworld Instagram: / arirangworld Homepage: http://www.arirang.com ------------------------------------------------------------ [Arirang K-Pop] YouTube: / arirangworld Facebook: / arirangkpop Google+: http://plus.google.com/+arirangworld
