Poll: Number of Quality Jobs Falling

As corporate investment decreased due to government regulations, decent jobs with high pay have been reduced, says a survey.

It is analyzed that despite the government statistics showing that employment conditions improved, business sentiment has deteriorated.

The Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) stated in a reported titled: “The decrease in good jobs and its implications” on July 3 that the number of decent jobs created last year, 140,000 in total, has fallen short of the half of the 300,000 of 2004.

“Decent jobs” were calculated on the basis of the number of jobs created in industries which have wage levels above the average wage per month of the total industries, according to the definition of the International Labor Organization.

Jobs created in finance, insurance, IT and service industries belong to that category.

The report has pointed out that employment statistics have become stable as the unemployment rate stayed at 3.2% in May, 2006, and the number of those who landed jobs has increased by 280,000, compared to May in 2005, but the quality of jobs lowered as the number of newly created good jobs has significantly gone down.

As good jobs are decreasing, the number of job seekers who voluntarily delay getting jobs has jumped.

The report analyzed that the number of economically non-active population due to job seeking activities during the first quarter amounts to some 490,000, the largest number since the first quarter of 2003 when the research began.

The report pointed to slack in corporate investment thanks to excessive government regulations as a culprit for the decreasing number of decent jobs.

Sohn Min-jung, a researcher of the SERI and writer of the report pointed out, “It is tougher for businesses to invest with a long-term view as the business cycle has shortened. Economic policies overly regulating domestic businesses are playing a big part in turning businesses to overseas investment and reducing quality jobs in the country.”

Sohn emphasized, “If nothing is done on the trend of losing good jobs, employment conditions economic players sense will be difficult to recover. It is a necessity to boost corporate investment in order to produce quality jobs.”

He added, “The government should not just reply on financial expansion but induce private sectors to increase voluntary investment. It also should ease regulations, and expand and enforce tax credits on investment and a tax exception system.