Should Labor, Management, and Government reach an agreement on "extension of retirement and youth employment"?

[Anchor]
There are growing calls for structural reform in the labor market due to changes in the demographic structure due to low birth rate and aging population.

In response, labor, management, and government have put their heads together to solve the problem of extending the retirement age and jobs for young people, and attention is being paid to whether they can reduce social conflicts and reach an agreement.

Reporter Baek Jong-gyu's report.

[Reporter]
The number of "long-term unemployed" who have not found a job for more than half a year is increasing this year, mainly among young people.

Between January and August this year, the average number of long-term unemployed people with a job search period of 6 months or more averaged 98,858 per month.

By age group, young people aged 15 to 29 accounted for 32.4%, followed by those in their 30s with 23.3%.

Long-term unemployed people under 30 account for more than half of the total.

The lack of quality jobs is cited as the cause, but representatives of labor, management, and government gathered in one place for the first time in a long time amid difficulties in finding a solution.

The key topic was the issue of jobs for future generations.

[Kwon Ki-seop / Chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Committee: I hope that labor, management and the government will put their heads together to make a meaningful change toward future survival and sustainable growth so that they can give hope to the young generation]

First of all, labor, management, and government decided to discuss ways to support the balance between work and parenting by changing the way workers and companies work flexibly to select and utilize working hours to overcome low birth rates.

[Kim Moon-soo / Minister of Employment and Labor: There is nothing you can't do if you work together to create a society where young people can get the jobs they want and raise children and where birth, education and family are compatible.]

It is a difficult situation to solve the problem of extending the retirement age while saving youth jobs due to changes in the demographic structure.

After intensive discussions on reforming the wage system, we plan to present a big direction early next year in line with discussions on reforming the national pension system.

[Kim Dong-myung / Chairman of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions: We need to quickly organize what we can do and present alternatives to agendas with large differences and show responsibility to each other.]

However, the reorganization of working hours to overcome low birth rates has sharp interests between labor and management.

As there is a great concern that the extension of the retirement age could also reduce the number of jobs for young people and become the seed of generational conflict, it is expected that considerable pain will be inevitable to reach an agreement.

I'm BAEK JONG KYU of YTN.

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; Park Jin-woo
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