These days, when people in Gwangju Metropolitan City (Gwangju) talk about jobs, the mood is heavy. A beverage factory that has supported the region for more than 40 years is preparing to shut down, and a full-scale strike has broken out at Gwangju Global Motors (GGM), which launched on the premise of "no strikes." The Kumho Tire Gwangju plant, which had a fire last year, still has not returned to normal operations. People in the region are even saying, "Isn't this a sign that production bases are leaving one by one?"
According to the food industry on the 5th, LOTTE Chilsung Beverage (LOTTE Chilsung) is pushing to close its Gwangju plant in the Bonchon Industrial Complex in Yangsan-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju. The plant has been running since 1984. It usually produced flagship products like Pepsi-Cola and Chilsung Cider and, depending on company conditions, also handled pilot (test volumes) production of new products.
The plant itself is not large. There are about 20 production workers directly employed. However, it is said to have an employment ripple effect of around 200 people when including logistics, sales, and contract services. LOTTE Chilsung Beverage said, "We plan to reassign employees currently on the job to other plants, and we will reflect their preferences as much as possible."
Taken at face value, the company's explanation does not mean a large number of immediate layoffs. Still, the local reaction is sensitive. Gwangju has never had many big-company jobs, and attracting new factories is not easy. In this situation, news that even existing plants will disappear is hardly welcome.
There was also an event last year that heightened job worries in Gwangju. As talk emerged that Samsung Electronics' Gwangju plant might shift some production, such as refrigerators, overseas, the region was on edge for a while. Fortunately, the plan was reportedly scrapped in light of uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy and domestic economic conditions.
Strikes or accidents that halt plants also darken Gwangju's job outlook.
The GGM union, which contract-manufactures Hyundai's Casper (gasoline, electric), held a full strike from 7:30 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. on Dec. 26. GGM began as a Gwangju-style shared-growth jobs project during the Moon Jae-in administration.
GGM labor and management had promised no union and no strikes until cumulative production reached 350,000 units, but that promise was not kept. Cumulative Casper production is known to have surpassed about 200,000 units so far. In 2024, it also joined the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Metal Workers' Union. Observers say this strike has prompted a reexamination of whether the Moon Jae-in administration's "labor-management shared-growth jobs experiment," which aimed to lower wages under local government leadership and increase jobs, was truly sustainable.
The situation is more serious at the Kumho Tire Gwangju plant. Since a fire in May last year, it still has not set a timing for normal operations. Among the eight plants that Kumho Tire operates at home and abroad, this one is the largest. More than 2,300 workers are employed there, and annual sales are close to 1 trillion won. As the plant stopped, freight workers, in-house subcontractors, and partner company employees also lost work and have effectively been on indefinite leave.
The jobs issue ultimately leads to population. Gwangju is cited as the fastest-shrinking city among special and metropolitan cities nationwide. Data from the Gwangju Research Institute show that last year Gwangju's net migration rate for young people was -1.63%. Compared with other cities, the situation is worse.
The outflow of young people is nothing new. Since 2015, Gwangju has lost young residents every year. In particular, more than 6,000 young people left Gwangju in both 2023 and 2024. That means more than 12,000 left in two years.
If you ask why they leave, the answer is clear: jobs. In surveys, 46.9% of young people who left cited "employment" as the reason. An official at the Gwangju Research Institute said, "If young people keep leaving, the working-age population will shrink, and the region's vitality and potential for innovation will weaken together," adding, "It is time to shift the focus of population policy to youth jobs."