S. Korea's service sector job market buoyed by gov't support: report

SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's service sector job market posted solid growth in the first seven months of this year, buoyed by government support measures, an official report showed Sunday. The report by state-run Statistics Korea and the central Bank of Korea (BOK) showed there were noticeable gains in people working in health care, welfare, science and engineering, as well as in arts, sports and leisure. In particular, there were more than 1.29 million people engaged in the health and welfare sectors in the January-July timeframe, which is the highest tally since related figures were compiled from 2004 onward. In 2004, there were 578,000 people hired to work in the health and welfare sectors. "The increase represents consistent efforts by the central government to fuel service sector jobs," a BOK source said. He said that compared to the past, many jobs were created in senior care and social welfare. This, he said, reflects growing domestic demand for such jobs. The latest findings also showed the number of jobs in fields such as science and engineering that require professional expertise surpassed the 900,000 mark for the first time ever, with positions in the arts, sports and leisure sectors hitting 423,000. Gain were reported for manufacturing, which hired on average more than 4.12 million, up from 3.97 million in the same period last year. The increase is mainly attributed to large conglomerates hiring more workers and many local businesses' spike in facility investments. The joint report, however, showed a drop in people working in construction and real estate. There were 1.71 million workers in construction-related jobs, the lowest tallied so far, while numbers in real estate were down to a three-year low of 491,000. The weak showing is the result of construction machines taking over manual labor jobs in large social overhead capital projects and general sluggishness in the local property market, experts said. It added that numbers for public service work and national defense fell as the government cut back on hiring temporary workers, a policy that was pushed forward to help people find work following the 2008 global financial crisis. There were 939,000 people hired for such positions up till July, down from 953,000 in 2010 and 966,000 in 2009. The report, meanwhile, said there were 24.10 million people hired overall throughout the country in the seven-month period, up by around 401,000 from 23.70 million tallied for the previous year.