Due to COVID-19, the government has implemented strict social distancing rules to prevent the spread of the disease. As a result, the market economy has slowed down considerably, and many young people are in a difficult situation where they struggle to find jobs. These CBT reporters are planning to investigate the situation, as well as the government’s proposed solutions to the problem in this article. -Ed.




Frozen job market

  Over the past year, unemployment increased dramatically because of COVID-19 which covered the world and caused a sharp decrease in the number of jobs. This is because the government implemented Social Distancing rules that only allowed a fixed number of people to gather in certain places like clubs or even for religious services. Also, worried about getting the virus, many people stayed home rather than going outside. Recently, Prohibition on Group Gatherings of over 5 people caused people to gather even less in groups outdoors.
  The employment disaster caused by this problem hit temporary employment for the first time. According to the National Statistical Office, the number of daily jobs contracted for less than a month decreased by 101,000 and the number of temporary jobs contracted for over a month and less than a year decreased by 313,000. This is because cafes, bars and restaurants, which young people mainly work at, suffered a heavy blow from the COVID-19 business restrictions. As the social distancing phase has risen, the “9 p.m. shut down” measure has been set into effect, which made cafes and especially bars, whose business hours are mostly after 9 p.m, suffer significant damages to their operations. As a result, lots of part-timers were fired and more and more stores were closed because they could not pay rent and labor costs.
  Lee Seong-yun, a student of Ulsan University, said, “I was a part-timer in a restaurant, but because sales diminished and the style of the restaurant changed to delivery and take-out service, I was fired.”
  In addition to cafes and bars, part-time jobs related to private educational institutes, which mainly employ college students, could not avoid the damage caused by COVID-19 either.
  Jeong Seo-hyun, a student of a university located in Seoul, previously did a part-time job supervising students’ exams in a small English academy. However, she had to quit her part-time job because the academy had to suspend classes due to the following reasons; the prohibition of group gatherings, concerns from parents due to COVID-19, and restrictions on business hours. Kim Gun-jae, a student of School of Business at CBNU, said he also had a similar experience of working at an academy and quitting due to COVID-19. He said that he had worked part-time teaching social studies to middle school students for almost 8 months. However, the academy, which used to teach all subjects, now only teaches 3 major subjects: Korean, English and Mathematics. He was fired because of deleted lectures on non-mainstream subjects.



  Due to COVID-19, there are people who have reduced hours compared to their previous contract and are forced to leave work early even though they are part-time workers. They had to work the full amount of hours specified on their contracts, but in reality, they leave work early and are not paid as much as usual because the number of people working is higher than the amount of work available.
  One college student, who worked part-time as a packing assistant for a department store internet mall, signed a limited contract until December. The manager said she would extend the contract in January because there would be a change in the minimum hourly wage. However, she said she has left work one and a half to two and a half hours earlier than the hours specified on the contract. “I understand that it happened because of COVID-19, but still I was angry and had a hard time since my salary was reduced,” she said, expressing her regret about leaving work early. However, she had to stop working after receiving a phone call from her manager explaining that the economy had been very bad and that it would be better not to extend the contract.
  Yoo Gong-ju, who runs a private business in a department store also said, “COVID-19 has significantly reduced the number of customers so that I should force the part-timers to quit their jobs.” A decrease in sales because of the reduced customer visits led her to this decision.
  In January 2021, the number of jobless people, who did not even try to find jobs online, skyrocketed, and went up to 2.72 million, the largest ever. According to January employment trends by the National Statistical Office, the number of ‘stagnant’ people among the economically inactive population jumped by 16.2% in January compared to a year ago. Generally, ‘stagnant’ people were mostly the elderly, retirees aged 60 or older, but recently, this number includes people in their 20s and 30s, who should be active in job hunting. The surge in this number is what is raising concerns.



The continuing battle to get a part-time job

  Recently, getting a part-time job is like winning a lottery. That is because sales have decreased a lot due to COVID-19, so shop owners don’t want to hire new part-time workers. Kwon Oh-bok, who runs a bakery franchise near Seoul, said the bakery has reduced the number of part-time workers due to COVID-19, resulting in cost savings. He also said that if sales recovered, he could hire new part-time workers, but that it would be difficult to recover after COVID-19 due to changes in customer’s living patterns, and because of new business hours regulations. In addition, a mobile phone shop owner said he didn’t fire anyone who worked there before, but he didn’t hire new workers and has no plans to hire anyone in the near future.
  Even if you are lucky enough to find an ad for a part-time job the “Battle to get the part-time job” is just starting, with 70 to 80 young people flocking to the interview. Even trying to find a part-time job through an app, there is usually only one position in the case of cafes and PC rooms, and the competition rate is often very high.
  Shin Min-ji, a student at Gachon University, commented on the hardship of finding a part-time job. She said “Before COVID-19, there were many job openings in the neighborhood, but now I can’t find any job at all. I can’t accept a long term part-time job because I’m a university student, but most of the part-time jobs are long-term. Therefore, I have no choice but to find a short term part-time job, for example for a single day, but the intensity of the work is so high that I can’t even think about doing it again.”



The government’s solution to thaw the frozen job market

  So far, a number of solutions, related to young people’s employment after graduation have been  suggested, but there have been no direct solutions suggested for creating temporary or part-time jobs. However, the government’s measures against the COVID-19, which is responsible for freezing the job market, are still looking promising. The government said it plans to come up with a new social distancing plan from March when vaccinations begin in earnest. The move is aimed at minimizing compulsory measures such as banning people from getting around and restricting businesses, but strictly limiting activities that violate quarantine rules. This is to protect people such as small business owners and self-employed people, who have been struggling with economic burdens. The government also said it will do its best to provide conditions to maintain employment, including reducing labor costs for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners. In this COVID-19 period, there were many stores that have suffered from a loss of business and could not afford the costs of labor. This is expected to affect the recovery of part-time jobs for young people. Now it is necessary to pay close attention to specific alternatives that the government will put forward in the future.

By Park Ji-min l jm41@cbnu.ac.kr
By Choi Jin-hyeok l jh41@cbnu.ac.kr