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We now turn to emergency job creation efforts in South Korea... as the job market faces the most difficult period in decades due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
To help those in dire straits,... South Korea's finance chief has vowed to create more than one-and-a-half million public sector jobs and resume state exams for civil service positions.
Kim Jae-hee reports.
The South Korean government announced on Thursday plans to create a total of 1-point-five-six million jobs in the public sector,... of which, around 765-thousand are new jobs.
The announcement comes just one day after figures showed the steepest job losses for the month of April in more than 20 years.
"The coronavirus outbreak is causing massive shocks and changes to the number and quality of jobs in the labor market,... along with immediate job losses. Emergency employment measures are urgently needed."
The government expects some 765-thousand new jobs to be created.
It will resume the hiring process for some 48-thousand public officials and jobs in public institutions this month.
Young people directly hit by the pandemic will also have more opportunities through plans to create more than 550-thousand additional jobs in non-contact and digital sectors.
In the budget for this year, the government had planned to create 945-thousand jobs, and some 167-thousand of those will be added in May and June.
Officials plan to finalize the specific measures during next week's economic meeting, and draw up the required funds from a planned third coronavirus-related supplementary budget.
But an expert says more needs to be done to encourage hiring by private businesses.
"It's good that the government is drawing funds to create more jobs in the public sector. But it's more important to let private firms lead the economy, rather than the government taking the lead. The government could take extra measures, like reducing corporate taxes,... leading companies to hire more and invest more."
"Both the public and private sectors will have to create jobs to overcome this employment crisis,... but the government's measure can be seen as a positive step toward tackling the most torrid period that jobseekers have seen in years.
Kim Jae-hee, Arirang News."
