60% of job seekers willing to work as temps

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60% of job seekers willing to work as temps

Nearly six in 10 Korean job seekers are willing to work for even low-paying, temporary jobs, a poll showed Monday, pointing to the grim reality facing local job hunters.

JobKorea, an online job search site, said its survey of 1,368 job seekers showed 57.7 percent have intentions to work even as temps. Nearly 61 percent of surveyed women said they want to have temp jobs, with the comparable figure coming to 39.4 percent.

Nearly 45 percent replied they want temporary jobs in order to build their careers, while 36 percent said that the top reason is to get employed as soon as possible. Yet slightly over 62 percent said they have a negative view of temporary employment, while only 10 percent have a positive opinion.

The findings come as Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, has pledged to remove all temporary jobs in the public sector during his five-year term as part of his jobs policy. Moon, who took office on May 10, has promised to create 810,000 new quality jobs in the public sector over the next five years.

Temporary workers are paid much less than their salaried counterparts and face tougher working conditions. According to the latest government tally, temporary workers accounted for 32 percent of all employees in the country as of the end of March 2016.

Korea remains dogged by high youth unemployment, with the rate hitting 11.2 percent in April, far higher than the country’s headline jobless rate of 4.2 percent. Yonhap

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