A single item on the Cabinet meeting agenda raised the age threshold for youth employment policy. That was Sept. 8. In the employment figures released the following day, the number of employed young people was recorded as falling for a 46th consecutive month. The eligible group widened, and the number of young people at work kept shrinking.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on the 8th that an item concerning the enforcement decree of the Special Act on the Promotion of Youth Employment had passed the Cabinet meeting, raising the age criterion for youth employment policy. The age bracket around 30 that had been pushed off the list of support programs comes back within the scope of eligibility. For those who could not even file an application because of their age, some things change.
The employment statistics were released that same week.
Total employment for the month rose by 184,000. Employment among young people fell for 46 months, that is, nearly four years without a single pause. The unemployment rate climbed to its highest level in four years.
Director Bin, who explained the figures, cited policy effects as one reason for the decline. Some young people who had been classified as "resting" because they were neither working nor looking for work moved into the economically active population, which includes the unemployed, and that shift affected the drop in employment, he said. When more people enter the job market, the unemployment rate rises in the statistics. The movement itself is not only a bad sign.
At the same time, the same official said there was no sign of the overall youth employment environment improving.
Whether the young people the policy calls on and the young people the statistics count are the same age group is not clear. In employment statistics, youth is usually counted as ages 15-29, and the policy criterion revised this time points above that. When the two count different people, the effect of expanding eligibility does not show up right away on the 46-month decline chart.
Raising the age criterion is closer to the work of a system catching up late with reality. As graduation comes later and the point of first employment is pushed back, the age at which support ends has moved back as well. That adjustment does not increase job postings. The gap between those who can now submit documents and those who actually get hired remains as it is.
On Sept. 8 and 9, a day apart, two pieces of news landed. The range of people who can submit documents has widened. Whether there is work on the other side of the counter is something the next employment statistics will show.
