The Ministry of Employment and Labor has overhauled half of its major programs for next year, replacing them with newly created initiatives in a sweeping restructuring aimed at expanding jobs for young adults.
The ministry's budget proposal for next year totals 38.95 trillion won ($28.1 billion), up 3.4% from this year's initial budget, the ministry said on the 1st. That marks an increase of more than 5 trillion won in three years from 33.7 trillion won in 2024.
The proposal centers on expanding youth employment and aggressively reshaping existing programs. Spending on jobs for young adults was set at 3.3 trillion won, about 700 billion won more than this year and the largest increase since 2021. Support will be restructured to match each stage of a young person's path into work — entry, experience and employment. A newly created program to help young people land their first job, funded at 379.3 billion won, will provide employment services to 160,000 people. The K-New Deal Academy, which helps participants build careers tailored to employer needs, will expand fivefold to 50,000 participants next year from 10,000 this year.
The share of new programs has risen sharply. Of the 95 major programs the ministry disclosed, 45, or 47%, are new. The ministry consolidated overlapping programs and put those that did not match demand on the ground under the knife. The overhaul went furthest in the youth field, where policy resources were concentrated: 16 of 28 programs, or 57%, are new. Budgets for protecting vulnerable groups and for workplace safety, areas central to the ministry's mandate, were also increased. The ministry allocated 13.35 trillion won to strengthening the social safety net and 15.47 trillion won to workplace safety, committing more than half of its total budget to the two areas.
"The state must play an active role so that no one is left behind in an era of great transition," Employment and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said. "We will make sure public finances serve as a catalyst for genuine growth that walks alongside labor."
