S. Korean public firms cut employment sharply

SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's state-invested companies have sharply
reduced their employment this year amid an economic slump and a government plan
to restructure the public sector, government officials said Sunday.
Of the 30 major public corporations, only 11 companies plan to hire a combined
946 employees this year, down a whopping 66.7 percent from 2,839 last year,
according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The remaining 19 state firms have no plans to recruit new employees this year.
The sharp reduction in the corporations' employment comes as the Korean economy,
Asia's fourth-largest, has been in the doldrums due to anemic domestic demand and
weak exports sparked by a global economic slowdown, officials said.
Another reason is that the government has yet to finalize its plan to overhaul
the nation's public sector, which has caused public corporations to delay mapping
out their employment and business plans, they said.
South Korea's employment situation is widely expected to worsen in coming months
as the economy is projected to slip into a deeper slump.
Finance Minister Kang Man-soo told parliament Friday that the nation's economic
growth could fall to the mid-to-high 2 percent range in the coming year from an
earlier estimate of 3.8-4.2 percent.
In October, South Korea's jobless rate stood at 3 percent in October, unchanged
from the previous month, but job creation dived to a 44-month low of 97,000,
according to the National Statistical Office.
(END)