President Lee Jae-myung said on the 15th that the government must respond to shrinking employment and widening income inequality, instructing aides to design what he called productive public jobs.
Lee gave the instruction after being briefed on a tentatively named "National Jobs Project" at a meeting of senior presidential secretaries and advisers held at the Blue House, Kang Yu-jung, senior presidential spokesperson, said in a written briefing. "We must move away from the past approach of simply providing jobs to support livelihoods," Lee said. "Consider ways to create jobs that raise social benefits while also enabling the redistribution of wealth through work, rather than treating this as a simple welfare concept."
He added that the program should be designed with an emphasis on the economic gains expected from redistribution rather than on the efficiency of the work itself. "The purpose and character of the project must be clearly reflected in its name," he said.
On productive public jobs, Lee asked officials to examine whether local governments could be used in the area of public safety, citing the formation of citizen patrol units as an example. "Specific items aimed at resolving polarization risk becoming a source of social misunderstanding or conflict," he said. "Prepare measures wisely and carefully to ease polarization."
Separately, Lim Kwang-hyun, the new presidential chief of staff, issued a first directive calling for an anonymous suggestion channel within the chief of staff's office so that staff can offer candid criticism for the sake of the country and people's livelihoods, regardless of rank.