S. Korean PM set to tackle unemployment
- 관리자
- 2008.12.08
- Hit 4290
The call by Han Seung-soo at a meeting with ranking officials comes as a string of companies have announced they will cut jobs next year in the face of gloomy economic prospects. Experts say the slowdown in South Korea's real economy will begin in earnest next year, jacking up the unemployment rate and stunting the country's exports.
"Unemployment is the biggest problem we will face as the financial crisis moves on to the real economy," Prime Minister Han said. "We must set up a task force to comprehensively look at problems of unemployment and the labor market." He also emphasized the need to nurture a quality work force.
Han's office said related ministries will gather soon to devise a body to meet the call by the prime minister, who warned the economic downturn sparked by a housing crisis in the United States will affect South Korea's real economy mainly in the form of job losses.
Seoul's Economy Minister Lee Yoon-ho told foreign correspondents earlier Monday that his government is bracing for a growth rate of under 3 percent next year, a figure signaling massive layoffs in the world's 13th largest economy.
From YonhapNews(http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)