GWANGJU < invest Korea

Gwangju’s employment growth rate ranked the first among metropolitan cities in Korea for seven consecutive months.

According to Gwangju last week, number of employed workers in Gwanju last month reached 713,000, showing a 3.3 percent (23,000 workers) year-on-year, based on the Statistics Korea’s report on economically active population.

The city showed the highest growth among Korean metropolitan cities for seven consecutive months, with 4.6 percent in January, 2.2 percent in February, 2.3 percent in March, 2.8 percent in April, 3.2 percent in May, 2.9 percent in June and 3.3 percent in July.

The number amounts to 2.2 times of Korea’s average at 1.5 percent and 6.6 times of an average of metropolitan cities (0.5 percent).

By industry, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry increased by 5,000 workers (5.1 percent), followed by 3,000 workers in the construction industry (4.5 percent), 7,000 employees in wholesale, retail, restaurant business and lodging industry (4.2 percent) and 5,000 workers in agriculture, fishing and forestry industries (23 percent).

Employment conditions were also improved as the number of full-time employee increased by 22,000 whereas those of part-time workers decreased by 18,000.

A Gwangju official noted that the city plans to create stable jobs in the private sector by fostering regional industries and attracting companies. He added that the city will also focus on creating jobs by facilitating the economy with social enterprises, cooperative associations and more.

Source Text

Source: Newsis (Aug 14, 2013)

** This article was translated from the Korean.