Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Vice Premier of Economy Choi Sang-mok, and other government ministers attend the National Assembly plenary session on the afternoon of Oct. 10 where the 2025 budget proposal passes. Chairperson Park Jung of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts in the front row on the left is preparing the review report. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 10th that the total expenditure of next year's budget and funds has been finalized at 35.3452 trillion won. This is a 4.9% increase from this year's 33.6825 trillion won.

In the Ministry of Employment and Labor's next year's budget and funds, the budget is 5.7549 trillion won, and funds such as employment insurance and industrial accident insurance amount to 29.5903 trillion won. The budget decreased by 1% compared to this year, while the funds increased by 6.2%.

The finalized budget for the Ministry of Employment and Labor is 209 billion won less than the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by the government.

For next year's projects, the budget was increased in areas such as expanding support for work-family balance, strengthening protection for vulnerable workers, and industrial safety. For example, an additional 1.4161 trillion won will be invested in parental leave pay, and 156 billion won in employment stability incentives for the childbirth and childcare period.

The newly established support project for vulnerable workers was allocated 16 billion won. An additional 119.5 billion won was allocated to support youth job creation, and industrial accident insurance benefits increased by 128.2 billion won.

However, 6.9 billion won was reduced from the budget for consulting on the establishment of a safety and health management system for small-scale establishments with fewer than 50 employees vulnerable to industrial accidents, during the National Assembly deliberation process.

The project supporting youth work experience also saw a reduction of 4.6 billion won during the National Assembly deliberation process.