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Rash self-praise could breed distrust in government policy
In August, the Korean economy recorded the largest job additions in August since the Moon Jae-in administration took office in May 2017. According to Statistics Korea, the number of employed people totaled 27.35 million last month, a rise of 452,000 from the same month of 2018. It was the steepest monthly rise since the comparable figure increased by 463,000 in March 2017.
"The employment situation has sharply improved in both quantity and quality," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. Rep. Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the governing Democratic Party of Korea agreed, saying, "The government's persevering policy is beginning to bear fruit."
But critics say these self-flattering remarks by government and ruling party officials appear to be premature. Looking at only figures, the employment rate of people over 15 years of age reached 61.4 percent, the highest in 22 years since the number stood at 61.5 percent in 1997. The jobless rate also fell to 3 percent, the lowest since 2013, indicating the three major job-related figures have visibly improved. Besides, the manufacturing sector lost only 24,000 jobs in August, compared with a fall of 94,000 jobs in July, raising hopes that the employment slump has bottomed out.
Nevertheless, not a small part of these jobs reports is likely to end up as an optical illusion. By age, 391,000 people over 60 landed jobs in August, meaning most of the jobs created last month were the results of the government's job-producing projects using taxpayers' money. On the other hand, the number of employed people in their 30s and 40s declined for the 23rd month in a row since October 2017.
Officials might have made positive assessments of the employment situation to raise the morale of economic players. If they go too far, however, it will end as a self-centered distortion of facts to gloss over the grim reality. Rep. Lee, the governing party chief, recently caused a controversy with his self-praising remark on the nominal increase in household income while the real or disposable income of most families shrank. The right attitude for officials in the governing camp is to face up to the reality of the insecure employment situation and make efforts to improve it.
