Doing service to job creation

It has been revealed that the service industry generates employment figures that are twice as high as those for the production industry, which means the service industry creates that many more jobs.

According to a report recently released by the Korea Labor Institute, “Methods to Improve the Job Creation Capacity of the Service Industry to Advance the Employment Structure,” the production industry’s employment stimulation coefficient is just 9.2 persons per 1 billion won ($873,000), whereas the same figure for the service industry is 18.1 persons.

In other words, the service industry requires almost twice the amount of human resources to produce the same amount of added value as the production industry.

This is partially because the service industry has relatively low productivity, but from another perspective, it also indicates that, compared to other sectors, the service industry could be a blue ocean of new jobs.

The service industry far surpasses the production industry in terms of its employment elasticity increase rate, which shows an ability to create jobs according to economic development. Since 2000, employment in the production industry decreased 0.1 percent for each 1 percent of industry development, but employment in the service industry increased 0.66 percent for each 1 percent of industry development.

While production jobs decrease even when the production industry develops, service jobs are created when the service industry develops.

Study results such as these clearly show where the focus of job creation efforts should be. In order to increase jobs in tandem with economic development, the service industry must be developed. It is for this reason that we have continued to emphasize the need for greater development of the service industry.

The government is thinking hard about new job creation methods, holding National Employment Strategy Meetings with the president presiding, but it has not yet produced impressive results.

That is because it has not dealt with the service industry problem, which is the key issue in job creation. It has failed to counter the opposition to easing restraints within the service industry presented by profitable organizations, and has put aside making any decisions.

If the government truly considers job creation one of the country’s core problems, it must not delay easing service industry restraints any longer. It is hard to imagine any new jobs will be created within the service industry if the government continues to fail to take action in this regard.