Lee vows all-out effort to ease youth unemployment

(ATTN: UPDATES with gov't plan to hire college graduates as interns in last three
paras)
By Yoo Cheong-mo
SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that his government
will send upwards of 160,000 young South Koreans abroad for occupational training
and volunteer services over the next five years as part of efforts to ease
unemployment among the nation's youth.
In his biweekly radio address, Lee also said his government will put policy
priority on creating more job opportunities for young people.
"The pain of youth unemployment is not restricted to the young people alone. It
is a pain for their families and all people, as well as a big concern for the
entire nation. I myself feel deeply sad about their unemployment," Lee said in
the nationwide broadcast.
"The government will develop various vocational programs and extend its maximum
support to unemployed youth. It's not desirable to passively wait for good
employers. The important thing is the can-do spirit," said the president.
Lee said his government has allotted a special budget of 750 billion won (US$514
million) for 2009 as part of its plan to send a total of 100,000 young volunteers
overseas over the next five years.
The president also vowed to send about 60,000 young Koreans to 13 countries
worldwide by 2012 under working holiday programs. South Korea has thus far signed
working holiday agreements with Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and France
that can benefit about 30,000 youths annually.
Lee promised to quickly put into motion the WEST program signed between Seoul and
Washington in August. Under the program -- which stands for Work, English Study
and Travel -- about 5,000 South Korean young people will be allowed to enter the
United States annually on 18-month visas.
On the domestic front, Lee pledged to encourage public institutions and small-
and medium-sized enterprises to temporarily hire young college graduates as
interns to help them prepare for full-time jobs in the future.
President Lee recently instructed his Cabinet to pay greater attention to the
problem of youth unemployment, saying the economic downturn is feared to inflict
particular pain on young people.
"In times of economic difficulty, unemployed youth will surely feel particularly
strong pain. All planned policy measures designed to ease youth unemployment
should be implemented as soon as possible," said the president.
Following the president's instruction, the central government announced a plan
later Monday to hire about 2,600 college graduates annually as "administrative
interns" starting next year. The figure represents 1 percent of the central
government's entire work force.
Separately, provincial governments also decided to recruit about 2,800 college
graduates as interns annually, according to officials at the prime minister's
office.
"The public sector interns will be allowed to work for various government offices
for an average of 10 months and receive a monthly salary of 1 million won," said
an official.
ycm@yna.co.kr
(END)