The local job market is being impacted by COVID-19.
As the tourism industry becomes stagnant and people stay indoors because of the virus, employment is dropping.
The job market is expected to be more contracted for the time being.
Joseph Kim reports.

The local tourism and restaurant industry is harshly being hit by COVID-19.



As of last month, the number of the employed in Jeju was 380,000.
That’s 9,000 decrease compared with a month before.

The number of the temporarily unemployed reached 15,000.
That’s 4,000 increase from a month before.


When China retaliated on the nation over the deployment of US THAAD missile defence system, the unemployment increased by 8,000 in Jeju in six months and the total number reached a record high at 21,000.


After the deadly virus hit the nation, 4,000 lost their jobs in a month in Jeju.
Average weekly working hours have also dropped.


The average weekly working hours in February were 38.3 hours. That’s 1.4 hours drop from a month earlier.

That’s because as the tourism industry becomes stagnant and more people keep indoors for the virus, local businesses temporarily close down and cut business hours.



The number of employed for the wholesale and retail businesses, restaurants and accommodations was 93,000 in January. That figure dropped to 86,000 in February.
That means 7,000 lost their jobs in a month.
The number in agriculture and fishery dropped by 3,000 and in electricity, transport, communication, and finance by 2,000.


The number of full time workers increased by 1,000 and reached 161,000.
In contrast, vulnerable jobs including part-timers and daily employed workers were badly impacted.
The number of part-timers and daily employed workers dropped by 3,000 each.

Experts expect the local job market is going more downhill as the labor statistics shown today are collected before the first infection with the virus was reported in Jeju.

The planned job reduction in the public sector and deepen financial difficulty of local businesses would fuel the aggravation of the local job market.

Joseph Kim, KCTV