Moon vows to hire 12,000 more civil servants in second half

Presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party pledged to recruit 12,000 more public officials in the second half of this year, if elected, by using a supplementary budget.
Rep. Yun Ho-jung, chief policymaker of Moon Jae-in's presidential election campaign, speaks during a press briefing at the liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in Seoul on May 7, 2017. (Yonhap)
Rep. Yun Ho-jung, chief policymaker of Moon Jae-in's presidential election campaign, speaks during a press briefing at the liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in Seoul on May 7, 2017. (Yonhap)

This is a follow-up to his pledge last month to get a 10 trillion-won (US$8.8 billion) extra budget in the first year of his presidency to create new jobs in the public sector.

"Moon will be the president of job creation and will create 810,000 new jobs mainly in the public sector while in office," Rep. Yun Ho-jung, chief policymaker of Moon's election campaign, said during a press briefing in Seoul.

The five-year term of the new president will begin the day after the May 9 presidential election.

The figure includes 174,000 jobs in charge of the people's safety, public order and welfare, and 340,000 jobs in other public organizations, the lawmaker said.

"We initially planned to carry out the pledge in steps from next year, but are confronted with a serious level of youth unemployment," he said. "So, we're going to push for additional hiring of 12,000 civil servants in the second half of this year."

   Under the plan, the country will see 1,500 more firefighters, social welfare workers and police officers, respectively, as they suffer from a chronic shortage of manpower, he said, adding that the job slot also includes 3,000 new school teachers.

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