No. of Temporary and Daily Workers Falls Below 7 Mil.

The economic slowdown is greatly affecting temporary and daily workers, with their number falling under seven million last month.

According to the Strategy and Finance Ministry and the National Statistical Office, the number of temporary workers was 4.98 million and that of daily workers 1.97 million.

The combined figure of 6.95 million is the lowest since 6.88 million in August 2004. Temporary workers refer to those whose employment period is longer than a month and shorter than a year. Daily workers refer to those whose employment period is shorter than a month.

A ministry official said, “The number of workers including temporary and daily workers usually falls to its lowest level in February and August, while it peaks in May and November. Korea’s job market is likely to get worse this month than in last month.”

In July 2007, the government began applying the Non-regular Workers Act to all businesses except for those with less than five employees. Companies cannot hire non-regular workers for more than two years unless they promote them to regular workers, so more such workers will be laid off toward July.

leon@donga.com