President Moon’s Approval Rating Falls to New Low of 55% Due to Economic Woes

President Moon’s approval rating is still high, but has dropped by 23 total points since May.  The drop is largely due to the economic woes caused by the increase in the minimum wage.  If his North Korea engagement policies fail that will likely be what drops him well below 50%.  Remember President Moon was only elected President with 41% of the vote.  He has been given a lot of goodwill for his North Korea engagement by the ROK public that could quickly shift if real results don’t happen:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating continued to drop last week amid worsening economic conditions, a poll showed Monday.

Moon’s approval rating came to 55.2 percent in a survey conducted by Realmeter, down 0.8 percentage point from the week before.

The weekly survey was conducted Monday through Friday, involving 2,507 adults throughout the nation.

The reading was the third consecutive week the rating had dropped and was a record low since the president took office in May 2017.

Moon faces strong criticism for his iconic income-led growth strategy that seeks to boost the income of wage earners, which he says will lead to a rise in domestic consumption, revitalizing the whole economy.

Apparently swayed by the new government strategy, the tripartite commission on the minimum wage hiked it by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won ($6.75) per hour at the start of this year. The minimum wage is again set to jump 10.9 percent to 8,350 won per hour in 2019.

Such a steep increase, however, is believed to have forced local businesses to cut back on jobs instead.  [Korea Times]

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