President Park’s visit to part-time job fair

Korea’s 10 major conglomerates participated at the 2013 Part-time Job Fair held at COEX in Seoul on Tuesday. The job fair is expected to help part-time jobs expanded in the private sector as well as the public sector along with the government’s “70 percent employment” goal.

Around 30,000 jobseekers visited the job fair hosted by the Employment and Labor Ministry, the Strategy and Finance Ministry, and the Gender Equality and Family Ministry. Most of the jobseekers were women in a career break, while many middle-aged retirees participated. They combed through the details of part-time jobs at booths set up by 82 subsidiaries of 10 conglomerates including Samsung. Some submitted their resume at the site and had an instant interview.

President Park Geun-hye, who has stressed job creation, visited the job fair and met 30- and 40-something women seeking for a full-time job or a part-time job who quit working due to marriage and child care. A female jobseeker said, “I often get distressed and gloomy when I stay at home struggling with my child all day long. I want to work while my child is at a kindergarten but few jobs are available.” After listening to them, President Park said, “I believe that the government should help part-time jobs take root quickly so that many people can be happy with their jobs and contribute to society. The government will do its best to help part-time jobs take root.”

The president also said, “Many women do not want their child stay at a day care all day long and want to use a child care system only when needed. We’ll work on it and enable them to use child care system on a time-basis.”