Govt's official jobless rate does not reflect reality: lawmaker

SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) - Ordinary citizens' unemployment situation in South Korea is a lot worse than official monthly jobless data released by the government indicates, an opposition lawmaker said Thursday.
Rep. Kim Sung-gon of the Democratic Party, who is a member of the National Assembly's strategy and finance committee, claimed the jobless rate "felt" by the people stood at 7.9 percent as of end-August, 2.6 times greater than the government's official rate of 3.0 percent.
In August, the country's jobless rate declined from 3.3 percent tallied a year earlier, and 3.3 percent reported for the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.
The numbers announced by Kim are based on a calculation that included "incomplete employees" who work fewer than 36 hours per week and those who have "given up job-seeking" for the last 12 months, he said.
Kim noted that these categories aren't factored into the government's data, although they are crucial to understand the current unemployment market.
The official August unemployment rate appears good since it is half of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's average of 8.2 percent, he said, but it "disregards what people, especially those in their 20s and early 30s, actually feel about getting a job."
Unemployment among those in their 20s is a lot more serious than the overall dim situation, the lawmaker said, adding that the creation of a new, more accurate index must be considered.
elly@yna.co.kr
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