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| A man walks by a number of job ads posted on the wall of a job placement agency in Daerim-dong, Seoul, on Aug. 8. Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
A 35-year-old vegetable shop owner surnamed Choi has been running two shops in Seoul for the past five years. He had two part-time workers at each shop, but Choi has decided to work alone after his business fell into a deficit amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
When with the government eased the limitations on multi-facility operating hours and private gathering sizes at the end of April, Choi started looking for part-time workers, but he couldn't find any.
"I have been having trouble hiring any staff at my store in Jangchung-dong for nearly half a year now. No one is applying for the job and I have been working here alone for two years. I don't have time to take care of my other shop in Hongdae and I am thinking of closing one store temporarily," Choi said.
A 34-year-old salad restaurant owner surnamed Kim echoed Choi's views.
"I started my own business two years ago and I am having the most difficult time recruiting people this year. It is very hard to find anyone who will work full-time nowadays. This is distracting me from expanding my business," Kim said.
Many workers who were let go from restaurants in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak have left to work as food delivery drivers, which pay better and give them more free time.
According to local job search site Albamon, the numbers of job postings registered in the first half of this year showed 2.42 million, up by 40.2 percent from last year's 1.43 million. However, the number of applicants increased only 1.3 percent during the same period. This means that there are more people looking for employees than people looking for jobs.
A Statistics Korea's survey publicized on Aug. 25 also showed that the number of workers needed in the domestic restaurant business has surged 1.76 times to record 74,361 in the first half of this year from 26,911, year-on-year.
"I think the sudden increase in the demand for workers in the restaurant biz after the government eased its stricter measures to control the spread of COVID-19 has intensified recruitment competition here. If this problem continues, other problems like wage increases and rises in the cost of living may follow," Kim said.
