South Korea will expand the age range covered by its youth employment policies to 34 and under, up from the current 29 and under. The change is intended to bring job seekers in their early 30s into the core target group for support such as vocational training and job placement as they enter the labor market.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on the 8th that the Cabinet approved an amendment to the enforcement decree of the Special Act on the Promotion of Youth Employment, along with a new enforcement decree for the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Public Service Workers Committee. Both take effect on the 18th of this month.
Under the amendment, "youth" under the special act will refer to people aged 15 to 34 who are seeking work. The previous decree defined youth as those aged 15 to 29. The special act requires the central government and local governments to provide measures such as career guidance, job placement and vocational skills training for young job seekers. With the legal definition widened, people aged 30 to 34 now fall within the core target group for these programs.
Many youth employment programs already cover applicants up to age 34. A work-experience program aimed at social value projects, for example, offers hands-on work opportunities and a monthly participation allowance of 1.7 million won to unemployed people aged 15 to 34. The government said the revision aligns the legal age threshold with the programs already in place, strengthening support for labor market entry.
The government also set operating rules for the Public Service Workers Committee, which will discuss better working conditions for non-regular workers in the public sector. The committee, established under the prime minister, will take up working conditions and treatment for public service workers. It formalizes a labor-government consultation framework covering not only public service workers but also fixed-term, dispatched, contracted-out and outsourced workers in the public sector.
The decree sets procedures for convening committee meetings and for appointing and commissioning members. It caps the working-level committee at 30 members, the development council at 20 and sector-specific councils at 15.
"We expect this decree to help eliminate discrimination against public service workers and to advance the law's goals of improving job quality and public services," a labor ministry official said.
