South Korea plans to unveil policies to address the workforce imbalance amid the country's aging population, a senior government official said Wednesday.
"Some regions are suffering from an exodus of people, aging population and deterioration of industrial infrastructure," First Vice Finance Minister Kim Byoung-hwan said during a meeting with related officials.
Kim noted that the country managed to decrease the number of job vacancies to 216,000 in July, down 13,000 from a year earlier, on the back of measures, including applying flexible rules to utilize the foreign workforce.
The country is juggling the option of allowing more foreigners to work here to reduce the workforce shortage at smaller companies.
Touching on the monthly jobs data, Kim said the country will come up with measures to support younger generations, as employment continues to remain a challenge for them.
In August, jobs for seniors aged 60 and above rose 304,000 on-year, while those for people in their 20s fell 91,000.
Kim noted that South Korea is expected to add more jobs in the service sector down the road on the back of the resumption of Chinese group tours that started Aug. 10.
South Korea will closely monitor sluggish job additions in the manufacturing and construction sector, he added.
Source: Yonhap News Agency