By Kim Tong-hyung
Doesn’t it always seem politicians say the silliest things? Gloating over the latest employment figures, which showed job gains reaching a 17-month high, Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan opened his mouth and let something out that should have stayed in.
``Two borrow the language of young people, we have hit `daebak’ (the jackpot) in employment for October,’’ Bahk beamed in a meeting between economy-related ministries Wednesday, unaware of the bomb he just dropped on public ego.
Less than 24 hours later, after a slew of angry comments on the blogosphere and print media, leaders of none other than the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) were calling for his head. Opposition lawmakers agreed with them for once.
``There is a widening disconnect between what the government is talking about and how people are actually feeling,’’ claimed Yoo Seung-min, a GNP Supreme Council member, getting quick support from fellow GNP leader Won Hee-ryong.
``It’s integral that our party demands President Lee Myung-bak reshuffle the cabinet and pick new people to navigate the country during the last one-and-a-half-years of his presidency.’’
While Bahk isn’t the first bureaucrat under this government to get burned for getting too cute with an Internet generation buzzword, it’s hard to deny that his comments were an outrageous insult to everyone’s intelligence, a mistake that looms larger in a pre-election year.
Yes, the annual 501,000 increase in payroll during October represented a 17-month high for the country. However, much of the gain could be explained by the temporary decline that annually occurs in September due to the national Chuseok holidays, the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving.
Anyway you look at the numbers, the job market remains bleak. More than 60 percent of the new jobs last month when to people in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to the government report, which suggests the employment data was padded by low-paid casual jobs.
The unemployment rate was measured at 2.9 percent last month, down slightly from September’s 3 percent. But this provides no comfort when 16 million of the country’s 41 million people over the age of 15 are deemed as ``economically inactive,’’ or have given up actively looking for work.
Critics have long accused the government of softening unemployment statistics by inflating the economically-inactive group, which also includes first-time jobseekers or public-service exam takers. Economists believe the country’s ``real’’ jobless rate would be easily in double digits when counting the number of first-time jobseekers and those working less than 18 hours per week.
Perhaps, most alarming for the country is the plight of school leavers and graduates, who are increasingly sidelined from the labor market, raising concerns of an entire generation lost to joblessness. The unemployment rate for people between the ages of 15 and 29 was measured at a disturbingly-high 6.7 percent last month.
The government has been urged to take urgent action to narrow the gap between jobs and opportunities for young people. Too bad the country’s top economic policymaker is showing more willingness to sugarcoat the problem than tackling it.