The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 13th it will ease the requirements for designating employment crisis areas and specially supported industries for employment. Employment crisis areas and specially supported industries for employment are systems in which the government provides financial support to regions and industries where employment conditions have worsened.
The government also decided to designate cases where the number of business sites and employees fell 5% or more from a year earlier during the six months immediately before application. Currently, the assessment period for determining employment shock is one year, and this shortens it.
The Labor Ministry held the 3rd emergency employment and labor situation review meeting on the day, chaired by Minister Kim Young-hoon, and stated accordingly. The ministry said it would ease the current requirements for designating employment crisis areas and specially supported industries for employment to preemptively respond to employment shocks caused by the Middle East war.
According to the current ministry notice, to be designated as an employment crisis area or a specially supported industry for employment, three or more of the following four conditions must be met during the one year immediately before application: ▲ the average number of employment insurance business sites fell 5% or more from a year earlier ▲ the average number of employment insurance insured persons fell 5% or more from a year earlier ▲ the number of job-seeking benefit applicants increased 20% or more from a year earlier ▲ the average growth rate of employment insurance insured persons was 5 percentage points or more below the national growth rate.
The ministry decided to revise the notice within this month to shorten the period for calculating whether the number of business sites and employees has decreased from one year to six months.
In addition, if a daily worker leaves a job due to company circumstances and applies for job-seeking benefits, it will be reflected when designating employment crisis areas and specially supported industries for employment. Currently, only cases in which a regular worker resigns and applies for job-seeking benefits due to business closure, bankruptcy, suspension of construction, managerial necessity, or workforce reductions caused by company downturns are counted.
In addition, the ministry decided to ease the requirements for paying employment retention subsidies for oil and chemical corporations and exporters facing difficulties due to the Middle East situation. Employment retention subsidies are paid to business owners, etc., who find it inevitable to adjust employment—such as suspensions or leaves—because sales fell more than 15% compared with the average of the previous six months. The ministry said, "Even if the sales decline criterion is not met, we plan to pay employment retention subsidies by recognizing that employment adjustment is inevitable due to the deterioration of industry and regional economic conditions."