The South Korean government will be tightening its emergency budget to subsidize employers in sustaining payroll during the Covid-19 storm from next year.

According to the fiscal fine-turning and rationalizing scheme by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, state subsidy for employment would be halved next year from this year’s 1.37 trillion won ($1.17 billion).

The budget had expanded to 2.29 trillion won in 2020, the first year of Covid-19, from 66.9 billion won a year ago.

Mid-sized companies will be excluded from the list of employers entitled to the support to encourage job aspirants to find jobs at SMEs and existing young employees to stay in their career, with an aim to focus more on helping smaller firms facing difficulties in staffing.

Policy funds with lackluster investment will be adjusted as the ministry decided to cut or freeze the related subsidy ratio. Support for funds capable of pooling large amount of private investment will also be reduced.

Big data platform establishment projects of each government department will be linked and integrated.

By Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]