[Economy] Public worried about jobs, economy

[Overview] 85% say nation is going wrong

In a recent survey on economic topics, the number of those replying that their individual situations had worsened compared to three months ago increased.

At the same time, the number of those anticipating a worse economic situation six months from now decreased, indicating that most people expect an economic recovery in the latter half of this year.

However, poll respondents also showed severe mistrust of the government¡¯s economic policies. A mere 13.4 percent of the respondents replied that the government is doing well on economic policies, but 85.5 percent responded that it was acting wrongly. The negative response increased by 3.9 percentage points from three months ago. On economic policies, even 67.5 percent of those who revealed that they support the ruling Millennium Democratic Party replied that the government is acting wrongly.

On the individual economic situation at present, 75.9 percent of the respondents said ¡°no good,¡± up from the 69.8 percent recorded in the first survey, whereas 23.9 percent responded with ¡°good.¡± By region, Taegu topped the list of the negative responses on the individual economic situation with 81.2 percent, followed by Kwangju with 79.8 percent.

By occupation, those in the agricultural, forestry and fishery businesses ranked first with 82.8 percent, followed by factory workers with 80.4 percent.

As for the gap between the rich and the poor, 61.1 percent replied, ¡°widening rapidly,¡± whereas 33.7 percent responded, ¡°widening slowly.¡± All in all, 94.8 percent of the respondents said the gap has been widening, showing a similar result to that of the survey conducted three months ago.

On the economic situation six months from now, 25.8 percent of the respondents said it would be better, 38.3 percent responded that there would be no change, and 35.1 percent said it would get worse. Although many respondents still are pessimistic by replying ¡°no change,¡± or ¡°worse,¡± the portion dropped sharply from 53.2 percent three months ago to 18.1 percent. The comparable portion of the optimistic prospect also increased somewhat from the previous 18 percent.

However, 77.9 percent of the respondents said that commodity prices six months in the future would go up, showing worries about inflation. About 16.3 percent answered ¡°no change¡± whereas 5.3 percent replied ¡°go down.¡± However, the portion of the respondents worrying about higher inflation fell from 25.8 percent three months ago to 15.1 percent, indicating that the concern about inflation has declined somewhat on expectations of an economic recovery after six months.

On the economy six months from now, self-employed businessmen had a relatively high degree of uneasiness, compared to those engaging in other occupations.

Job seeking and unemployment have been selected by 31 percent of the respondents as the most urgent economic issue to be settled. Commodity price stabilization came next with 30.1 percent, followed by restructuring the business, financing and public sectors with 15.3 percent, the solution of the gap between the rich and the poor with 10.3 percent, the continuation of economic growth with 8.3 percent, and stabilization of the stock market with 4.2 percent.

Noteworthy was that men, in particular university students seeking jobs, replied that the job seeking and unemployment problem should be settled first among other things.

Na Sun-Mi, specialist at Dong-a Media Research Institute