Large Minimum Wage Increase Leads to Massive Job Losses in South Korea
This should not be surprising to anyone that rapidly increasing the minimum wage will cause small business owners such as restaurant owners to cut jobs because they cannot afford to pay them:
Restaurant jobs in Korea have been vanishing quickly, according to data released Tuesday.
Joong Ang Ilbo
Analysts say the loss in jobs is largely the result of the rapid increases in the minimum wage over the past two years.
According to the Supplementary Results of the Local Area Labor Force Survey in the Second Half of 2018, the number of people employed by restaurants last October was down 104,000 from the same month a year earlier.
That fall was the largest of all categories in the survey.
Other categories also showing major year-on-year declines included: employment agencies, down 85,000; retailers, with 37,000 jobs lost; and land transport services, with 28,000 fewer jobs. Due to troubles at domestic automakers, employment by auto part manufacturers was down 28,000.
By job types, the number of retail workers decreased by 63,000 in October 2018 year on year, followed by construction workers (at a negative 48,000), drivers (down 40,000) and food and beverage service workers (with a fall of 38,000 year on year).
Analysts believe the rapid rise in the minimum wage is largely to blame.
You can read more at the link.
How else will South Koreans gain parity with their parasite-infested brethren in North Korea unless they, too, are starving, depending on the government for survival?
Great job by Commie Moon. Economic genius.
Painfully obvious here in Korea. Go to any restaurant now and it will be understaffed and the employees are all doing the work of 3 people. Another failed commie policy
Read about how the economy in Zimbabwe suffered under Robert Mugabe, trained in Pyongyang. Moon wants everyone in South Korea on their knees begging for a handful of rice, with no place to turn but the government. His government.
I pray that I am wrong, that my cynicism is out of line, that Moon is really going to invent some policy that causes capitalism to flourish and make South Korea’s economy explode in growth, surpassing even Japan.